MEMBERSHIP
Protecting Environmental Health
and Resources in Oklahoma
by Gynene Sullivan, MA, CAPM, manager, Communications
Museum where the Alfred P. Murrah
Building once stood. The laboratory was
one of the first to reoccupy the area with
the purchase and renovation of the old,
Brutalist-style Bell Telephone Building.
Oklahoma is a unique and varied state,
home to 39 Native American tribes,
diverse enterprises and a landscape
marked by contrasts. A major producer of
natural gas, oil and agricultural products,
the state relies on an economic base of
aviation (generates $11 billion annually),
energy (third largest producer of natural
gas and fifth largest producer of crude
oil), telecommunications and, more
recently, biotechnology. It also boasts
13 distinct ecological regions within its
borders—more per square mile than any
other state. With four separate mountain
ranges—the Ouachitas, the Arbuckles, the
Wichitas and the Ozarks—more than 500
named creeks and 200 dam-created lakes.
This environmental diversity, coupled
with frequent extreme weather events
and heavy industry, makes environmental
testing critical to the health of Oklahoma’s
3.9 million plus residents. Facility
After separating from the Oklahoma
State Department of Health in 1993, the
Oklahoma Department of Environmental
Quality, State Environmental Laboratory
Services (SELS) began a complex series
of phased construction and moves in
1998. Today it is located in the heart
of Oklahoma City directly north of the
Oklahoma City National Memorial and The 48,000 square-foot laboratory resides
with DEQ central offices in what has
become a bustling, vibrant downtown. Its
BSL-2-rated facility occupies the ninth
and tenth floors, and there are specialized
areas in the basement for radiochemistry
instrumentation, on the third floor for
storage, and on the first floor for sample
intake.
For all its tragedy, the bombing of the
Murrah building ushered in a renaissance
in Oklahoma City and a new beginning
for the Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ). Oklahoma City continues to
grow and prosper with public and private
partnerships dramatically transforming
its face.
Chris Armstrong, director of SELS, has
been at the forefront of environmental
public health in Oklahoma for over four
decades. “It’s been gratifying to see the
effects our programs have had on public
health the environment in the state.”
Director
A lifelong Oklahoma resident,
Armstrong received his bachelor’s in
microbiology with a chemistry minor
from Oklahoma State University. But he
worked construction for over a decade
before joining a local medical research
foundation, performing tissue culture and
working on animal immunotherapeutic
protocols. “Extraction and digestion
laboratories have very specialized
mechanical needs, and I had a really
good understanding of that when I
first started,” Armstrong said. He loved
research, but he soon found himself with
a family of five, so he became a clinical
microbiologist doing STD microscopy,
cultures and serological tests. He made
the jump to environmental science after
participating in Oklahoma’s first waste
load allocation study, and has served as
a supervisor to both a clinical laboratory
and environmental laboratory.
Staff
SELS has 57 full time employees. More
than 90 percent of the staff have both
undergraduate and graduate degrees
in chemistry, biology or microbiology
and have a minimum of 11 years of
experience. Two accreditation program
staff members plus four scientists
also serve as laboratory accreditation
assessors. “We’re currently three positions
down, and our new budget makes it
unlikely we will be able to refill vacancies
this year.”
Revenue
SELS has a budget of $7.2 million, of which
approximately 47% is fee revenue, 33%
is state appropriation and 20% is federal
grants. While fees for testing are fixed,
Armstrong says, “We had the foresight
to include a Consumer Price Index (CPI)
clause into our rules,” so fees would have
an automatic increase based on the CPI of
the previous year.
Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality Laboratory Staff. Photo: SELS
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LAB MATTERS Summer 2019
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