50-2-116. Powers and duties of local boards. (1) Local boards shall:
     (a) appoint a local health officer who is a physician or a person with a master's degree in public health or the equivalent and with appropriate experience, as determined by the department, and shall fix the health officer's salary;
     (b) elect a presiding officer and other necessary officers;
     (c) employ necessary qualified staff;
     (d) adopt bylaws to govern meetings;
     (e) hold regular meetings quarterly and hold special meetings as necessary;
     (f) supervise destruction and removal of all sources of filth that cause disease;
     (g) guard against the introduction of communicable disease;
     (h) supervise inspections of public establishments for sanitary conditions;
     (i) subject to the provisions of 50-2-130, adopt necessary regulations that are not less stringent than state standards for the control and disposal of sewage from private and public buildings that is not regulated by Title 75, chapter 6, or Title 76, chapter 4. The regulations must describe standards for granting variances from the minimum requirements that are identical to standards promulgated by the board of environmental review and must provide for appeal of variance decisions to the department as required by 75-5-305.
     (2) Local boards may:
     (a) quarantine persons who have communicable diseases;
     (b) require isolation of persons or things that are infected with communicable diseases;
     (c) furnish treatment for persons who have communicable diseases;
     (d) prohibit the use of places that are infected with communicable diseases;
     (e) require and provide means for disinfecting places that are infected with communicable diseases;
     (f) accept and spend funds received from a federal agency, the state, a school district, or other persons;
     (g) contract with another local board for all or a part of local health services;
     (h) reimburse local health officers for necessary expenses incurred in official duties;
     (i) abate nuisances affecting public health and safety or bring action necessary to restrain the violation of public health laws or rules;
     (j) adopt necessary fees to administer regulations for the control and disposal of sewage from private and public buildings. The fees must be deposited with the county treasurer.
     (k) adopt rules that do not conflict with rules adopted by the department:
     (i) for the control of communicable diseases;
     (ii) for the removal of filth that might cause disease or adversely affect public health;
     (iii) subject to the provisions of 50-2-130, on sanitation in public buildings that affects public health;
     (iv) for heating, ventilation, water supply, and waste disposal in public accommodations that might endanger human lives;
     (v) subject to the provisions of 50-2-130, for the maintenance of sewage treatment systems that do not discharge an effluent directly into state waters and that are not required to have an operating permit as required by rules adopted under 75-5-401; and
     (vi) for the regulation, as necessary, of the practice of tattooing, which may include registering tattoo artists, inspecting tattoo establishments, adopting fees, and also adopting sanitation standards that are not less stringent than standards adopted by the department pursuant to 50-1-202. For the purposes of this subsection, "tattoo" means making permanent marks on the skin by puncturing the skin and inserting indelible colors.
     (l) adopt regulations for the establishment of institutional controls that have been selected or approved by the:
     (i) United States environmental protection agency as part of a remedy for a facility under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, 42 U.S.C. 9601, et seq.; or
     (ii) department of environmental quality as part of a remedy for a facility under the Montana Comprehensive Environmental Cleanup and Responsibility Act, Title 75, chapter 10, part 7.

     History: En. Sec. 86, Ch. 197, L. 1967; amd. Sec. 4, Ch. 216, L. 1969; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 196, L. 1971; amd. Secs. 108, 111, Ch. 349, L. 1974; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 273, L. 1975; R.C.M. 1947, 69-4509; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 709, L. 1985; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 479, L. 1991; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 324, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 88, Ch. 418, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 6, Ch. 471, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 137, L. 1999.