Archives West Finding Aid

As part of that reorganization, the Division of Sanitary Engineering and the Division of Food and Drug were combined to create a new Division of Environmental Sanitation. C. W. Brinck was appointed director of the new division on May 1, 1951. The division was divided into three sections: water, sewage, and general sanitation. The Water Section was in charge of water supplies--both public and private--swimming pools, well drilling for public water supplies, and review of plans for water works, swimming pools, school buildings, and other public buildings. The Sewage Section was in charge of sewage disposal, stream pollution abatement, plan review, sewage plant systems, cesspool and septic tank cleaning, and garbage disposal. The General Sanitation Section was itself divided into two areas run by the sanitarian and by the chemist. Sanitary inspection services included inspections of restaurants, meat markets, food manufacturing, soft drink/ ice cream parlors, tourist camps, locker plants, camp sanitation, and mattress factories. In addition, the sanitarian was responsible for insect and rodent control. The chemist was in charge of the laboratory, which conducted analyzes of water, sewage, soft drinks, meats, bakery products, canned goods, fruits for spray residue, insecticides and other poisons, drugs, and liquors.

In 1967 the Legislative Assembly created the State Department of Health. The State Board of Health continued in an advisory capacity, but the day-to-day administration of the state laws regarded public health and related matters were relegated to the new department. The State Board of Health became the Department of Health and Environmental Sciences in 1971 with the passage of Governor Anderson’s Executive Reorganization Order 9-71. In 1991, though it remained a part of the Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, the role of the Environmental Sciences Division was considerably expanded to include: Natural Resource Damage Assessment, a Petroleum Tank Release Compensation Board, a Superfund Section, and an Underground Storage Tanks Section.

The Environmental Sciences Division eventually became its own separate department, renamed the Department of Environmental Quality, in 1995, comprised of the following divisions: Director’s Office, Air Quality, Centralized Services, Energy, Environmental Remediation, Reclamation, Waste Management, and Water Quality.

The mission of the Water Quality Bureau is to assure that water quality is maintained and improved so that state waters can support all their beneficial uses. The goal being to work with the public, agencies, and other interests to evaluate, maintain, and improve the quality of state waters.