The Bureau supports DEP activities throughout the state and assists other local, state and federal agencies in environmental activities. In addition to laboratory analyses and technical consulting, the Bureau provides field sampling services to many DEP programs.

Staff is housed in the laboratory complex adjacent to the DEP Twin Towers building on Blair Stone Road in Tallahassee. The laboratory facility was completed in 1989, and is nationally recognized as being state-of-the-art in terms of physical design and capabilities. Since becoming fully operational, the lab has consistently scored high relative to other environmental labs in the nation evaluated by the U.S. Geological Survey and the EPA in performance reviews. It is one of the few facilities in the country able to perform ultra low-level metals analyses.

Fully automated, the Chemistry Section provides analyses for an array of chemical constituents in water, soil, sediment, waste and tissue samples. The Biology Section performs a variety of biological and microbiological analyses, including algal and macroinvertebrate taxonomic identifications. New methods development and testing are an important part of both sections’ operations.

The Standards and Assessment Section provides technical support in the areas of experimental study design, field sampling and the review, interpretation and statistical analysis of environmental data. This section also manages the DEP Quality Assurance (QA) Program for water, waste and resource management programs.