Refreshing EPA’s Corvallis, Oregon Laboratory Facilities
When I first joined the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development as a Division Director in 2016, I had no idea that the next six years would not only be focused on research, but also a massive renovation of the facility itself. The facility, one of EPA’s first research locations, was at the precipice of a major renovation – it’s first in over 50 years! A lot of things change over 50 years with laboratory innovations and research needs, and this was a real opportunity to bring the facility into the 21st century. I was excited to lead researchers and support staff through this endeavor to set us up for success well into the future.
A Brief History
The EPA research facility located on the Oregon State University campus in Corvallis, Oregon was constructed in the early 1960s and opened in 1966. The EPA didn’t even exist back then! The construction was authorized by an amendment to the Clean Water Act and operated as part of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In 1967, we briefly bounced to the Department of Interior’s Federal Water Pollution Control Administration before officially becoming part of the newly created EPA in 1970. Since then, we’ve been through several reorganizations, but our mission remains the same: protecting human health and the environment. Our cutting-edge approaches to research in biotechnology, air and water quality, watershed ecological epidemiology and soil remediation (among other topics), all directly support this mission.
The Great Renovation
Although much of our research is field based, we have a lot of lab operations that needed to relocate or pause during the renovation process. In 2016, we started by building an Annex to our main building. This new space, while small, would give us some needed breathing room to operate, while we entirely vacated the main building for the renovation project. That renovation project began in 2018, when we spread our research activities into every nook and cranny we could squeeze into on our 10-acre campus—relocating offices, workstations, and laboratories into some very unlikely locations! We even had researchers relocate to our coastal branch about 50 miles away in Newport, Oregon!
The plan was to keep the shell of the building intact, but completely gut the inside down to the support structure. Then, we could renovate all the labs and the offices inside the building. Originally, the renovation was only supposed to take two years. That put us into 2020 when the entire world stopped. However, we persevered and were only delayed by COVID and supply-chain issues for one additional year. In 2021, we began to slowly move back in and spin up the research labs that had been temporarily abandoned or moved for the past couple of years. We also invited our EPA Region 9 colleagues in California to join us in our new space. By the very end of 2022 – we were back in the full swing of things in our brand new-to-us lab.
A Final Product
By the end of our six year renovation project we overhauled and created 26 new labs and 69 new workstations and offices. All labs now have state-of-the-art equipment and infrastructure. We’re ready to adapt to future research needs and we’re built with necessary engineering to withstand natural disasters. The offices and conference rooms are hybrid work-ready, complete with both in-person and virtual capabilities.
To celebrate the re-opening of the lab and joining locations with our Region 9 counterparts, we hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony in May 2023 and provided lab tours to the attendees. We looking forward to showing off our cutting edge research lab on our Earth Day 2024 lab tours - If you’re in the area, we’d love to see you!
Before and After the Renovation
About the Author
Alan Thornhill, Ph.D.
Pacific Ecological Systems Division Director
Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development
Alan Thornhill is the Division Director for the Pacific Ecological Systems Division. He has been with the EPA since 2016. He manages a research facility in Corvallis, OR with a branch in Newport, OR. He enjoys seeing the research in his newly renovated facility flourish and managing the team of researchers and support staff to reach their fullest potential.
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