Laboratory and Environmental Assessment Division
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| Staff | DHS: 75 DEQ: 85 |
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| Location |
Hillsboro, Oregon, USA 45°32′54″N 122°54′30″W / 45.54833°N 122.90833°WCoordinates: 45°32′54″N 122°54′30″W / 45.54833°N 122.90833°W |
| Campus | 2 acres (0.0081 km2) 86,000 square feet (8,000 m2) |
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Operating agency
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Oregon Department of Environmental Quality Oregon Department of Human Services |
| Website |
DEQ Lab OSPHL |
The Oregon PHL/DEQ Laboratories are the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) laboratories located in a single building in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. DHS operates the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory (OSPHL), and the DEQ operates their Laboratory and Environmental Assessment Division at the site. The laboratories previously were located at Portland State University, moving to the new location near Cornelius Pass Road and the Sunset Highway (U.S. Route 26) in northeast Hillsboro in 2007.
Built at a cost of $35 million, the laboratories cover 86,000 square feet (8,000 m2) on a 2-acre (0.81 ha) site. DEQ’s lab is an all hazards facility used primarily for testing air and water samples from around the state. The OSPHL operates a biosafety level 3 lab onsite. OSPHL mainly conducts screenings of newborn baby blood samples from a six state region, and testing for and investigations of infectious diseases. The combined facility has around 160 employees.
In 1903, the state government created the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory. The state created State Sanitary Authority in 1938 as part of the State Board of Health, with the Sanitary Authority becoming an independent agency in 1969 as the Department of Environmental Quality. Originally located at Portland State University in a converted parking garage, the Oregon Department of Human Services’s Public Health Laboratory and the laboratory of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality began lobbying for a new facility in the 1990s. The old 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) space had been remodeled in 1977 when the laboratories moved into the space, and was considered outdated and too small.
In response to agency efforts, Oregon’s 2002 to 2003 legislature passed an appropriations measure that authorized building a new facility to house the two laboratories. In September 2004, the Oregon Legislature’s Emergency Board approved $17.5 million in appropriations towards construction of the new laboratory. Officials hoped to move into a new facility by October 2006.
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