The Health Committee convened on June 8, 2026, to receive an update on PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) contamination in drinking water and to review the Alameda Health System (AHS) preliminary budget for fiscal year 2026-27. Presentations covered health effects, regulatory actions, water district responses, and community concerns. The AHS budget showed a $42.8 million net loss, driven by $66.5 million in labor CPI costs and $17.8 million in HR1 state impacts. Public comment focused on the proposed closure of the Fairmont Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) and alleged inaccuracies in AHS budget figures.
Okay, so good morning, everyone. Like to call the health committee to order for June 8th. Clerk, take the roll. Supervisor Tam. Present. Supervisor Miley. Present. All right. Any instructions? For in-person participation, the meeting site is open to the public. If you'd like to speak on an item, please fill out a speaker's card in the front of the room and hand it to the clerk. And for remote participation, follow the teleconferencing guidelines posted at www.acgo.org and use the raise your hand function. So if you can just join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the public for just undergoing indivisible with every day at Justice Floor. Okay. So the our first item today. And I know they're going to be pretty lengthy, but our first item is something that I've been waiting to have a follow-up update on county staff when we first when we first discussed this months and months ago. So I'm really pleased that we're having this today. An update on PFAST and how we might consider approaching this concern. So I think we're gonna be starting. I guess Dr. Moss, you're you're kicking things off, and I guess we've got a whole line up here. All right, let's do this. Thank you. Good morning, supervisors. I'm Dr. Nicholas Moss, Alameda County Health Officer, and I'll be leading off the PFAS update. Thank you for having this session. While we're um just getting set up here, the purpose of this presentation is to share additional information with the committee and county residents on PFAS with a focus on drinking water. We last presented in June of 2025 on considerations for possible county actions related to PFAS. Fostering partnerships, education and outreach, and policy advocacy emerged as potential areas of focus. We're returning today to provide additional information about PFAS impacts and response, having engaged several of the experts on the front lines dealing with PFAS and drinking water here in Alameda County. And then we'll hear about PFAS health effects. And then we'll hear from two of our local impacted water districts, Zone 7 and the Alameda County Water District, and then we will get a community perspective on PFAS and health, and then I'll close out with just a few more county health updates. I'll introduce each speaker as we go, and we'll do our best to move quickly because I know it's a full agenda today. So just um a brief refresher on PFAS. PFAS are PER and polyfluoroalkyl substances. I'm on slide five here. And they are a family of molecules characterized by carbon chains with multiple bound fluorine atoms. They are uh human-made and they are very resistant to decomposition regardless of heat, uh water, oil exposure. Um, and they have been in wide use since uh they were uh synthesized in in um uh around about uh 1940. Because they are resistant to decomposition they accumulate in our environment and foods and in our bodies. Next slide, please. Oh, that's me. Apologies. So this slide shows a uh a list of examples of uh common products that contain uh some of the many thousands of man-made PFAS or human-made PFAS chemicals. And from these products, they find their way into our environment, into our water, into our landfills, farms, and our food. And as I mentioned, our bodies. So on that note, I'm going to introduce our first guest speaker, Dr. Chris Banks.