treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
Recognize this place?
Plum Island. Kathy Prescott was scared when she heard about plans for a huge, new animal disease research lab in her hometown of Athens, Ga. When she found out that Athens landed on the short list based in part because of her city's eagerness to host the government-run lab, she got angry.
"I said, 'Wait a minute, the community doesn't even know anything about it,'" says Prescott, an artist who has launched a campaign with her husband to keep the lab out of town. "We were sold down the river before anybody even knew what this thing was."
Five states are vying for the Department of Homeland Security's nearly $500 million lab that will study the world's deadliest and most contagious animal diseases.
The lab's current location is Plum Island, an off-limits 840-acre government-owned island more than a mile off New York's shores
Homeland Security says the lab is outdated and needs to be replaced with a facility that can develop vaccines and antidotes to some of the world's most exotic and dangerous foreign animal diseases. Such viruses, if released, could cause billions of dollars in damage to the economy and force the slaughter of untold numbers of cattle, sheep and pigs.
The worst of those diseases is known as foot-and-mouth disease; the world's last major outbreak occurred in Great Britain in 2001. It caused $16 billion in losses, and 7 million animals had to be killed and burned.
The five states angling for the lab -- Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas -- say it will create jobs, economic development and cachet.
"It brings prestige in a very dynamic (biotech) industry," says Duane O'Neill, president of the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership, which wants the lab in Mississippi.
Site screening scrutinized
But some lawmakers are questioning the selection process.
An internal review conducted by a panel selected by Homeland Security officials ranked the Mississippi site in Flora 14th out of 17 sites originally considered, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.
Homeland Security Undersecretary Jay Cohen overruled the city's low score and placed it in the top five.
"It appears that the undersecretary responsible for this program may have corrupted the site selection process by putting his thumb on the scale in favor of a particular site and its contractor, in violation of his own rules and over the objections of his own advisers," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., whose House Energy and Commerce Committee held oversight hearings in May examining the risks of the new lab.
However, under the department's rules it was free to disregard the recommendations of the government experts it appointed. Homeland Security said it selected advisers who were experts and were screened carefully for any conflicts of interest, working through seven stages of recommendations over 18 months.
A department spokeswoman, Amy Kudwa, said the agency's internal committee reviews "did not appropriately consider" certain important aspects, such as Mississippi's plan to work closely with Battelle Memorial Institute, a Homeland Security contractor that already manages some national labs elsewhere.
Safety concerns
Critics say the lab is better situated on the island, where highly contagious viruses can't be easily spread.
"The risk-reward ratio is something that needs to be discussed in more detail," says Republican congressional candidate B.J. Lawson of North Carolina. "I'd be happier if it stayed offshore."
Plum Island has captured the imaginations of novelists and filmmakers over the years. Author Nelson DeMille set his 1997 thriller of the same name on Plum Island; Clarice Starling tried to entice Hannibal Lecter with the promise of annual trips to the island in the 1991 horror film Silence of the Lambs.
Because it would cost more than $750 million to build a new, more secure lab on Plum Island, Homeland Security two years ago began looking for less-expensive alternatives.
It now has whittled its list down to five sites: Athens, Ga.; Manhattan, Kan.; Flora, Miss.; San Antonio, Texas; and Butner, N.C.
Elected leaders in all five states consider the lab a boon. It brings the promise of new construction, jobs, ties to research centers and more.
Last month, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, called securing the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) her state's "top bioscience priority."
Homeland Security didn't keep its plans secret from community leaders -- officials from Georgia to Kansas have been wooing the lab for more than a year.
Plum Island is still in the running as well, but Jamie Johnson of Homeland Security says a new lab could be built on the mainland for about $500 million -- and, he says, it would be cheaper to run a mainland lab year to year and easier to find top-notch workers who wouldn't have to commute by boat.
Homeland Security says it can build a safe, secure lab.
"We can never say it's never going to happen," Johnson says. "But we can build a safe facility."
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
groovy2
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6304
posted
Hi Tree
I just looked up Plum Island on google earth yesterday so it does look fimuilar to me-
They should put it in Washington DC right next to where the clowns that thinks this is a good idea work -Jay-
Posts: 2999 | From Austin tx USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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lymielauren28
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 13742
posted
Tree,
I'm really glad you posted this. I'd thought about posting in the past as it reffers to my home state of Mississippi.
The proposed sight in Flora Mississippi is 6 miles from my home. 6 miles!!!
A meeting was held at city hall last week and hundreds of people showed up and of course we had our governer, several congressman and the like.
I was only one of two out of the hundreds of citizens that spoke out against the lab and questioned safety issues.
I left feeling disgusted and defeated. If they build it here I'm moving. Far, far away. Period.
Lauren
-------------------- "The only way out is through" Posts: 1434 | From mississippi | Registered: Nov 2007
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
I dont blame you Lauren I would to.
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
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