![[logo] US EPA](http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
U. S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
ROBERT S. KERR ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH CENTER
40th ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION AND CELEBRATION
The Past
RSKERL HISTORY
In the beginning it was planned as a space center. The area there about was to be a science and research park, residential area for scientists and their families, golf course, an education center and park, including a museum. It wasn't to be. A man was not to be shot to the moon from that little knoll out there because NASA wanted an ocean, canals, and a large metropolitan backup. But a water pollution control bill had been passed, and there was a possibility that a water lab might be located in Ada. After the City provided roads, water, and sewerage to the site, the deal was done!
Enactment of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act in 1961 provided for the construction of seven laboratories to combat increasing water pollution problems nationally, but only five were completed at that time: in Ada; Athens, GA; Corvallis, OR; Fairbanks, AK; and Duluth, MN. In 1964, Congress, by concurrent resolution, resolved that the Ada facility would thereafter be known and designated as the Robert S. Kerr Water Research Center in honor of the-long time U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, for his dedication and concern for conservation and development of our natural resources and his pioneering legislation in environmental protection. Several years later it was changed to the Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Laboratory (RSKERL).
Senator Kerr died January 1, 1963, three years before seeing his dream for the Ada community fulfilled. Designed by the architectural firm of Coston, Frankfurt, and Short, and constructed by the D.A. Harmon Construction Company, the Kerr lab was dedicated in ceremonies at 10 a.m. May 28, 1966. According to the dedication program, construction of the 50,000 square-foot facility began in 1964 on a 16 acre site, located three miles south of Ada, donated by the Sciences and Natural Resources Foundation of Oklahoma. The construction contract for the building totaled $1,830,000; and when fully equipped, the installation was valued at over $3 million.
In the ensuing years auxiliary structures were constructed for shops and large-scale physical models as wells as housing for the safe storage for hazardous wastes, acids, solvents, and compressed gases required for many of the Laboratory's research activities. In 1993, a 17,000 square foot addition was made to the Laboratory itself for housing an expanded library, computer center, and conference rooms.
When first opened, the facility was a part of the U.S. Public Health Service in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The early function of the lab was to serve as a training, research, and technical assistance center for water pollution control for the Arkansas/Red River Basins including Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, and portions of Kansas, Missouri, and Colorado. Later, the service area was changed to coincide with what is now EPA's Region 6 which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Laboratory emphasis was on municipal waste treatment and industrial waste problems associated with petroleum production, irrigation, and animal wastes. The ground-water program was very small, consisting of only nine people total. In a planning exercise, this was accidentally reduced to seven. Even though most of Headquarters management agreed that the number was indeed nine, resources were cut to support only seven. The error could not be corrected. The end of the program seemed certain. Eventually, someone from RSKERL contacted a student working part time in the Headquarters management computer center who, with a single strike, raised the ground-water program strength to eleven.
In 1967, the lab was transferred into the U.S. Department of the Interior where it languished under a number of Agencies with words like Commission, Administration, Federal, Pollution, and Water, in their names. The logo was a buffalo. In December, 1969, it was recognized that air pollution, water pollution, and solid waste management had something in common, and the Environmental Protection Agency came into being. Soon there after the new EPA logo became a little flower.
Until this point it was often difficult to know if the operating programs in Washington or the Regional Office in Dallas was providing day-to-day direction to the Laboratory. At one point, the Laboratory reported to and was directed by the Corvallis, OR, Laboratory. In 1970 the role of RSKERL was expanded and it became one of fifteen research laboratories administered through the Office of Research and Development in Washington. In 1979 RSKERL was designated as EPA's center for ground-water research by the Assistant Administrator of the Office of Research and Development. During that same year the National Center for Ground Water Research (NCGWR) and the International Ground Water Modeling Center (IGWMC) came into being.
After 1979, the Laboratory focused its activities on both research and technical assistance in the broad areas of ground-water protection and reclamation. Major initiatives include understanding and expressing mathematically the physical, chemical, and biological processes which control the transport and transformation of contaminants in the subsurface environment. Parallel efforts were underway in wellhead protection and underground injection control, animal feedlot waste, irrigation return flows, as well as the treatment of hazardous wastes, including oil refinery and cannery waste, using soil and other natural systems.
In 1987 the RSKERL Technology Support Center (TSC) was established giving a structured format for providing technical assistance. To date, the TSC has responded to over 2,000 specific requests for technical assistance at hazardous waste sites, presented over 180 technical seminars, provided almost 130,000 mathematical models to users, responded to over 3,000 model related technical assistance requests, and provided over 70,000 RSKERL publications to requesters.
In the spring of 1995, a realignment of the Office of Research and Development saw the establishment of three national laboratories and two centers, incorporating EPA's fifteen research laboratories nationwide. As a result, the Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Laboratory became a part of EPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Kerr Laboratory is now known as the Ground Water and Ecosystems Restoration Division (GWERD) of the National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL). GWERD is responsible for conducting research and engaging in technical assistance and technology transfer activities on understanding the processes that control the transport and fate of pollutants in the subsurface environment and at the interface of the subsurface and surface water and atmosphere. The Division applies this basic knowledge to develop and evaluate innovative methods to (1) restore contaminated ground water; (2) prevent pollution of pristine ground water; and (3) restore watershed ecosystems.
Through the vision of its employees over the years, the Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Laboratory has enjoyed a national and international reputation despite being located in the small Ada community. A sense of pride is felt throughout the Laboratory in having excelled in areas of science of paramount importance throughout the world.
RSKERC Past - RSKERC Present - RSKERC Future - Robert S. Kerr - RSKERC Timeline