Fisheries biologist joins city health department for 'adventure'

Paul Dalka is so new to Carson City he can't yet tell you what restaurants are on which streets.

But that doesn't bother him, because he came here to experience a little of the unknown.

After a couple decades working in various health or environmental fields in Northern California, Dalka recently left the Golden State to come to Carson City to become its senior environmental health specialist.

For a biologist, he explains why he made the trip in a more metaphysical way than you'd expect. He did it "for the simple sense of adventure. For the process of renewal."

Dalka had made it over to Carson City once or twice in his many years in California, and he remembered it when he decided he wanted to leave.

"I thought, 'This looks like an interesting place to live. Why not take the risk and see what happens?'"

In his previous life on the other side of the Sierra, Dalka worked mostly as a fisheries biologist, first with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, then with the California Department of Fish and Game, with which he monitored timber harvests and their effects on fish runs.

He also owned a consulting firm called Fresh Water Environmental, which guided clients through developing rural property without butting up against regulations, of which there are many in California.

Here in Carson City, Dalka, supervisor of the city's health code specialists, will do inspections of restaurants, hotels, septic systems and whatever else could become a public health concern.

He'd been on the job just a matter of hours when he and several other city officials converged on the Downtowner Motel for breaching numerous health and safety codes. The experience wasn't far off from where he first started as a health inspector.

"My entire career's been dedicated to public health or protecting the environment," Dalka said.

And it's been a career that's had its own rewards, he added. At the very least, Dalka knows he has spent his life keeping people from getting sick or hurt.

"Our mission is obviously to address factors that put the public at risk, to make (Carson City) a safe place, an enjoyable place," he said.

His favorite part of the job, believe it or not, is dealing with the public, even members of the public that come in angry over his recommendations or stipulations.

"I love to educate them on what the process is and why it's necessary. They generally have a new outlook when they walk out of here, a more positive outlook, if you will."

Dalka and the small group of city health specialists he leads will have their hands full this summer. Along with catching up on restaurant inspections, which got backed up when the staff was one or two people short, the consumer health department will check on everything from special events to swimming pools to mosquito hot spots in the wake of West Nile virus' first year in Nevada.

"We're a small department," Dalka said. "Everybody has to pitch in to make the citizens of and the visitors to Carson City have a safe environment."

n Contact reporter Cory McConnell at cmcconnell@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.