Sludge Watch ==> Big reno at NY biolab fuels speculation about Plum Island

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin

America is expanding its biolabs - where experiments with anthrax, viruses, 
and animal diseases take place in top secret. If we are worried about the 
environmental fate of municipal sewage treatment plant solids, spills and 
effluent, there is reason to have real concerns about the safety of the 
wastewater and solids disposal from these facilities. This story in the 
Scientist says Plum Island needs $30M just to maintain safety.

There are several other biolabs being build around the USA. See further 
stories below.

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By John Dudley Miller

NEWS
Big renovations at NY biolab
$30 million expansion and upgrade fuels speculation about how long aging 
Plum Island facility will stay open

THE SCIENTIST
Published 27th June 2006


The Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York will receive a $30 million 
expansion and upgrade, despite the fact that the Department of Homeland 
Security (DHS) has said it might shut the lab down when a new facility goes 
into operation in 2013.

Planned improvements to the 55-year-old facility will include a new 8,000 
square feet animal wing, a conversion of 2,500 existing square feet to new 
BSL-3 space, and a new firehouse/motor pool building. Upgrades will 
modernize the water system, the electrical system, the cold-water chillers, 
and the wastewater decontamination system. In December 2002 the Center lost 
power for three hours when its backup generators failed.

DHS spokesman Chris Kelly told The Scientist that DHS requested the Plum 
Island improvements in 2003, just after it assumed control of the facility, 
formerly overseen by the Department of Agriculture. The decision to spend 
this money “is completely separate” from the Department’s 
decision build a new $451 million, 500,000 square feet National Bio- and 
Agro Defense Facility (NBAF), he said, and there has been no decision 
regarding whether to keep Plum Island open along with the NBAF.

“Until the NBAF is fully operational, Kelly said, Plum Island 
“will continue its important mission by educating veterinarians about 
foreign animal diseases and continuing to develop novel diagnostic 
techniques and preventatives.”

Jon Schneider, press secretary to Congressman Tim Bishop, whose district 
includes Plum Island, told The Scientist that Bishop has asked DHS Secretary 
Chertoff to keep Plum Island open. “We received no assurances about the 
future of Plum Island.”

Alan Pearson, a former DHS advisor now with the Center for Arms Control and 
Non-Proliferation, said that although he doesn’t know DHS’ plans, 
“In my opinion, this notice means that DHS is keeping its options open 
with regard to the future of the Plum Island facility after NBAF comes on 
line.”

Harley Moon, a former Plum Island director, said $30 million in improvements 
might be needed just to keep research at Plum Island safe. “It’s a 
horrendous cost, I know,” he said, “but we’re stuck with Plum 
Island right now, and that’s the cost of doing business.”

Regarding the NBAF, the DHS has received 29 applications from 22 states and 
the District of Columbia, Kelly said. “At some point in the coming 
weeks a select list of applicants will be announced,” he said.

John Dudley Miller
jmiller at the-scientist.com

Links within this article

Department of Homeland Security Plum Island Animal Disease Center Fact Sheet
www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/press_release/press_release_0176.xml

“A-E Services for programming & design of integrated facility 
improvements at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center,” Federal 
Business Opportunities, June 9, 2006.
www.fbo.gov/spg/DHS/FLETC/FLETCBPB/LGL06R00012/SynopsisR.html

Department of Homeland Security Plum Island FAQs, Question 36
www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editorial_0808.xml

Government Accountability Office, "Combating bioterrorism: Actions need to 
improve security at Plum Island Animal Disease Center," GAO report number 
GAO-03-847, October 20, 2003
www.gao.gov/htext/d03847.html

J.D. Miller, “US homeland security to build animal biolab,” The 
Scientist, February 6, 2006
www.the-scientist.com/news/display/23091/

“Congressman Bishop, Senator Clinton discuss Plum Island’s future 
with Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff,” October 6, 2005
wwwc.house.gov/timbishop/r109-051.htm

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
www.armscontrolcenter.org/cbw

Harley Moon
www.vetmed.iastate.edu/faculty_staff/profiles/hwmoon.asp

J.D. Miller, “More applicants for US bio-agro lab,” The Scientist, 
May 17, 2006
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/23454/
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http://www.trivalleycares.org/news/articledisplay.asp?artid=384

Thursday, August 10, 2006
Bioterror

By: Eric Firpo
Published In: Tracy Press


A bomb test site in the hills upwind of Tracy has made the “short list” of 
18 spots where a research laboratory might be built to help protect against 
bioterrorism, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday.



Homeland Security is looking for a spot to build a 500,000-square-foot 
research lab to replace a similar, but antiquated, laboratory at Plum Island 
in New York, which was built in the 1950s.



The University of California asked to run the new lab at Site 300, 7,000 
acres in the hills west of Tracy that’s part of the Lawrence Livermore 
National Laboratory.



Homeland Security said the UC has made the first cut, along with 17 other 
applicants in 11 states. It might not be built for another eight years 
environmental studies must be done for each applicant, and the federal 
government this year allotted $23 million to study where the lab will be 
placed.



Lab spokeswoman Susan Houghton said the new research lab would be a 
job-creating boon to the region and a scientific prize for the nation. 
Houghton said the aim of the new lab is to find ways to counter diseases 
such as foot-and-mouth disease that affect animals, and those such as the 
avian flu that can also infect people.



“This is considered a very prestigious lab to have,” she said.



But not by everyone.



Now that Site 300 has cleared its first hurdle, the anti-nuclear group 
Tri-Valley CAREs is launching an effort to prevent it from being built west 
of Tracy.



The group fears the new lab will research bioweapons, since it will have 
Level 3 and Level 4 labs. A Level 3 lab is built to study potentially deadly 
diseases, and Level 4 labs are built to handle deadly illnesses that have no 
known cures.



Tri-Valley’s director, Marylia Kelley, said the group was irked when the UC 
turned down its public records request to view a copy of its application.



“They didn’t even give us the cover letter,” she said.



The group is worried what would happen if an airborne animal disease somehow 
escaped the new lab and infected dairy cattle here or worse, people.



Tracy Hills, a proposed development of several thousand homes and 
businesses, will sit less than a mile from Site 300’s border.



Parts of Site 300 are so polluted with toxic chemicals and metals it made it 
on the federal list of Superfund sites, the most contaminated in the 
country.



“A major accident could devastate the state economy,” Kelley stated.



The group says a nuclear laboratory is no place for a biological laboratory 
because it sends a message that the lab will be used to develop offensive 
bioagents instead of trying to defend against them.



Kelley claims the new lab will “experiment with a lot of potential 
bioweapons agents.”



She also argues it will violate an anti-bioweapons treaty which allows for 
unannounced inspections.



“You don’t show up and do a surprise inspection at a nuclear weapons lab,” 
she said.



But talk of bioweapons infuriates people at Lawrence Livermore’s lab.



“They’re calling it biowarfare,” Houghton said. “They use phrases that scare 
people. They’re trying to get sexy headlines. We believe we can bring 
scientific technology that will help the area and help the nation. We will 
not be creating weapons. We will not be doing anything related to weapons. 
Period.”



Tri-Valley CAREs has scheduled a meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 12 at 501 W. Grant 
Line Road where panelists critical of the proposal will discuss the lab.



“The Department of Homeland Security has said they will take community 
acceptance into account,” Kelley said. “What that means is if the community 
of Tracy becomes public in their objections, the Department of Homeland 
Security may not chose Tracy.”



• To contact City Editor Eric Firpo, call 830-4223 or e-mail 
efirpo at tracypress.com.
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Utah bioterror labs expand—another warning for Boston Document Actions

Last modified 2006-03-30 23:24

Over at the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Grounds…procurement officers quietly 
placed orders … for four fermentors with a total capacity of producing 
nearly 3,500 liters of bacteria and the possibility of another five 
fermentors in the future.…
Over at the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Grounds…procurement officers quietly 
placed orders … for four fermentors with a total capacity of producing 
nearly 3,500 liters of bacteria and the possibility of another five 
fermentors in the future.…

Edward Hammond, who keeps an eye on bioweapons research from his Texas-based 
Sunshine Project, said, “A few years ago, if somebody did that it would be 
viewed as possibly a smoking gun of an offensive program. It would probably 
get the Iranians bombed if they did that at one of their facilities.”…

One chilling, unexplained request from Dugway last year asked for batches of 
dead, frozen sheep for testing a mobile cremator-ium, resurrecting the 
specter of 6,000 sheep found dead in Utah’s Skull Valley following the 
accidental release of VX [nerve gas] from Dugway in 1968. Some worry the 
likelihood of accidents will increase as more tests are performed at a 
supposedly secure Army base where nine illegal workers from Mexico were 
found working for a subcontractor in February, building a new hotel.

“There is a very blurry line between offense and defense when it comes to 
germ warfare,” said Salt Lake City Dugway watchdog Steve Erickson, director 
of the Citizens Education Project.…
Critics say the problem is that such experiments look a lot like what a 
country would do if it wanted to make biological weapons. …in writing up 
plans for new biodefense centers being constructed this year, the Homeland 
Security department suggested developing defensive biological weapons would 
be OK. That’s a position taken by no other country….

— “Just Testing: Is the US Government making anthrax bombs in Utah?” Ted 
McDonough, Salt Lake Weekly 2/23/06