Plum Island eyed for biodefense lab site BY EMERSON CLARRIDGE | Special to Newsday; Staff writer Jennifer Maloney contributed to this story. August 24, 2007 Article tools E-mail Share this Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Furl Google Reddit Spurl Yahoo Print Single page view Reprints Reader feedback Text size: Plum Island is on equal footing with five United States municipalities to become the host of a new biodefense lab that will study deadly pathogens, a federal homeland security official said last night.
Previously, officials suggested the island, off Orient Point, was a backup site to be considered only if the other locations fell through.
But James Johnson, director of national laboratories for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told a group of about 100 East End residents at a meeting last night that Plum Island definitely is on the list of prospective sites.
"No decisions have been made," he told the crowd assembled at Southold Town Hall. "We are at the beginning of the process."
At the site that is chosen, authorities plan to build a new, $450-million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility that could handle the highest level of toxins. For 50 years, scientists at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center have studied foreign animal diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever.
Last night, some residents said they fear that the focus of the new facility would be to study even more dangerous pathogens, such as the Ebola and anthrax viruses.
Johnson said Ebola and anthrax would not be among those studied.
Earlier this week, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) issued a statement opposing a reclassification of Plum Island's bio-safety level from 3 to 4 - which would allow it to process more dangerous pathogens - saying that action is too dangerous because of the island's proximity to New York City.
Last night, residents also voiced concerns about the threat of terrorism and the difficulty of evacuating Long Island in the event of a disaster at the lab.
"You would have 3 million people trying to get off the island," Robin Imandt said. "I can't think of anything closer to hell."
Bernice Melly, another speaker, said that if a hurricane hit the East End, "that island would just be completely - it would just be a tragedy."
Plum Island was not on a list last summer of 18 locations under review but recently became a contender. The other five locations designated as finalists are Manhattan, Kan.; Athens, Ga.; San Antonio, Texas; Creedmoor, N.C.; and Flora, Miss.
Homeland security officials are holding meetings in all six places and plan to issue a draft environmental impact statement in the late spring or early summer of 2008, Johnson said. The department plans to name a site for the lab in late fall of next year, he said.
If Plum Island is chosen, he said, the department would tear down the existing facility, which is too costly to maintain, and build a new one.
One advantage of the Plum Island site, he said, is that a staff of scientists trained to do this work already works there. Security was a priority in the selection process, Johnson said.
The facility has 300 employees, 100 security cameras and a "fully robust" evacuation plan, Johnson said.
Staff writer Jennifer Maloney contributed to this story.
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Copyright � 2007, Newsday Inc.
Posted by northstar (Member # 7911) on :
Topic: Is the government crazy?
Succinctly:
Sure looks like it!
N/
p.s. gonna be a real bidding war amongst these locations!
Posted by randibear (Member # 11290) on :
you've got to be kidding???
move them to area 51!!!
Posted by artraveler (Member # 12764) on :
It all seems to be pretty crazy, huh? Another one of the govt. great ideas!!! Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Good gosh! Haven't they done enough damage at Plum Island without THIS??
Posted by Skyler (Member # 11549) on :
The govt is crazy, and in SO many ways...
Posted by savebabe (Member # 9847) on :
I want to hear from some CT politicians as well.
You know, especially the ones from Lyme CT!!
Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :
Huh??? Previously it was said that the govt was going to close down Plum Island.
Posted by Ruth Ruth (Member # 11059) on :
I don't like to think like this, but politicians seem to be motivated first by money (in secret) and then if the secrets get out and enough outrage ensues, then they are motivated second by public opinion.
So my question is: "Forgetting the illogic concerning public safety... if you follow the money, why would this location be added to their list?"
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
babe,
you want to hear from politicians living in the area.
go to www.chrisdodd.com since he was the house rep wrote our LYME DISESE bill in congress and been meeting w/lyme folks for over 3-4 years!
i met him recently in boone, iowa. i posted about my visit in medical, and posted a link where i'm the 1st person to talk in Q/A and he explains all about how he got involved in this!
talked later to his nice wife as well about subject. Posted by savebabe (Member # 9847) on :
US homeland security to build animal biolabDepartment seeks location to replace aging Plum Island lab and expand its mission
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is scouting places to build a $451 million, 500,000 square feet, high-security biolab to replace the 55-year-old animal disease lab it operates on Plum Island, just off the northern tip of Long Island, New York.
The proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) will help modernize homeland security, "to meet the needs that are current, not the needs of the 50s when the current programs were initiated and the facilities, for the most part, originally designed," Harley Moon, chair of the National Academy of Sciences committee on animal diseases and a former director of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, told The Scientist.
Most of the buildings at Plum Island ? the only US laboratory capable of handling large cattle in Biosafety Level three (BSL-3) security -- were constructed in the early 50s, and are aging badly. In addition, a government report two years ago severely criticized security on the island. DHS has not said whether it will close Plum Island when the NBAF is opened.
According to a written DHS announcement last month, NBAF will join together researchers from three government departments -- the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and DHS -- to combat foreign animal diseases that Plum Island already works on (such as foot and mouth disease in cattle) and animal diseases that can infect humans, such as avian flu and anthrax. DHS also expects the new lab to expand on Plum Island's ability to find drugs, vaccines, and other countermeasures against these diseases. The lab's new "capability is needed to fill a critical gap in the nation's agro and biodefense plan," and may include BSL-3 and -4 facilities, according to the DHS statement.
DHS and USDA officials declined to respond to any of The Scientist's questions about the lab.
The competition to build and run NBAF is open to federal agencies, state governments, universities, industry, and other organizations. Interested groups must notify DHS by March 31. Construction is expected to begin in Fall 2008, with the facility up and running in Spring 2010, according to the Congressional justification document DHS submitted to Congress last year. This fiscal year, Congress authorized $23 million to begin designing the facility.
Corrie Brown, a professor at the University of Georgia, told The Scientist that NBAF is needed because globalization is causing the most worrisome agricultural diseases to move around the world with increasing frequency, necessitating better diagnostic capabilities to detect and contain them. "So the diseases we used to think we could stop at our borders, we're pretty sure we probably can't stop them at our borders anymore," she said.
However, the plan is not without its critics. Edward Hammond, US director of the Sunshine Project, an activist group which studies bioterrorism policy, disagrees that NBAF needs half a million square feet of space. "It's another example of overbuild," he told The Scientist. "We're building far more BSL space than we can profitably use."
Several details have not been worked out?for instance, the lab's location. The federal government has tried several times to upgrade the existing facility on Plum Island from BSL-3 for agriculture to BSL-4, Hammond said, but local political opposition has always scuttled those plans.
However, Moon and other experts said the most likely candidates to house the lab would be land-grant universities, because they all have agriculture departments. When The Scientist queried several of them, Kansas State University veterinary school dean Ralph Richardson said his university would definitely apply, while a spokesman from Washington State University said the school would not apply.
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Another one of the govt. great ideas!!! ![[loco]](graemlins/loco.gif)
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