State social services building

The Oregon Department of Human Services office in Astoria has been closed since late March.

The Astoria office of the Oregon Department of Human Services, which closed indefinitely in late March, sits above petroleum contamination that has been the subject of testing and investigation for more than two decades.

Public documents, including a fact sheet by the state Department of Environmental Quality from 2021, show that petroleum in the soil produces vapors that can affect air inside the office building.