Garrett County Environmental Health

Garrett County Environmental Health is the division of the Garrett County Health Department that looks after the safety of the water you drink, the food you eat out and the ground your septic system drains into. Its office is in Room 102 of the Health Department building at 1025 Memorial Drive in Oakland, and it serves homeowners, builders, restaurant operators and anyone buying or developing land in the county.

Programs and Permits

• Wells and water: well permits and water information
• Sewage disposal systems and percolation (perc) tests for building lots
• Food protection, including food-service inspections
• Open burning permits
• Rabies program
• Radon resources
• Tick surveillance

Why You Might Stop By

If you are building on a new lot, a perc test and an approved septic design usually come before anything else, so this office is often an early stop for new construction around Deep Creek Lake and Oakland. Restaurants and food vendors work with the food protection program, and homeowners call about wells, radon or rabies concerns. The division also handles appeals of well, on-site sewage disposal, subdivision and shared-facility decisions, and takes environmental health information research requests, which can be useful when you are looking into a property's history.

Before You Go

The Environmental Health page links forms, downloads and property map resources, so it is worth checking there for the right application before you visit. Billing questions have their own lines, listed on the same page.

Call ahead with your property details handy and staff can point you to the right permit or inspection.

Call Us!

• Website
• (301) 334-7760
• Email