UPDATED: Government Ignores Own Bio-Lab Safety Studies

by Ronni Mott
August 22, 2008

Alert: The government's deadline for comments on the bio-lab facility is Monday, Aug. 25. See below for contact info.

The U.S. government has not adequately determined the safety of a proposed bio-defense lab that could land in Madison County if many local supporters get their way. The non-partisan Government Accountability Office warned Congress this summer that it may not be safe to allow the Department of Homeland Security to relocate the Foot-and-Mouth Disease Research Facility—often called just FMD—from an island off the coast of New York to one of six proposed inland locations. One of the possible locations is tiny Flora, Miss.

“We found that DHS has not conducted or commissioned any study to determine whether FMD work can be done safely on the U.S. mainland,” the study states, and goes on to cite numerous reasons to keep such a lab off-shore, isolating chances of spreading the disease, which has no cure.

“[A]ccidents, while rare, still occur because of human or technical errors,” the report concludes. With this facility, such an accident could put Flora at ground zero for an FMD outbreak, devastating the U.S. livestock industry.

The GAO report also disagrees with the $2.8 billion to $4.2 billion in “total nationwide cost” of an FMD outbreak promised in an Aug. 5, 2008, DHS presentation in Flora. Citing the 2001 outbreak in the United Kindgdom—totaling some $30.4 billion in losses over all industry sectors and necessitating the slaughter of more than 6 million animals —the report says actual costs in the U.S. for a similar outbreak could be considerably higher.

“The total cash value for U.S. livestock in 2007 was $141.4 billion. The total export value of red meat in 2007 was $6.4 billion,” the report states. “These values represent the upper bound of estimated losses” to the livestock industry, with additional indirect costs, including unemployment, “which could ripple through other sectors of the economy as well.”

The Department of Homeland Security has been evaluating several sites across the country for a national bio and agro-defense facility, and Flora is on the short list of six finalists, to the delight of Gov. Haley Barbour, Flora’s Mayor Scott Greaves, and Rep. Chip Pickering, among others, including the Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce.

“The main reason would be to participate in protecting our nation’s national security, but more selfishly, wherever the facility’s located, it will prompt the biotech and biosciences environment that will really help in economic development as well,” Duane O’Neill, president and CEO of the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership, told the Jackson Free Press. O'Neill is also spokesman for the Gulf States Bio and Agro-Defense Consortium

That consortium includes a number of public and private interests, including the governor’s office, Louisiana’s Tulane University, Iowa State, University of Texas Medical Branch, plus Mississippi’s Alcorn State, Jackson State, Mississippi State, Mississippi Valley State, Tougaloo, Ole Miss, and the University Medical Center. It also includes the private, non-profit Batelle Memorial Institute, which would run the lab if the Flora site is selected.

Residents of Flora seem to be on board with the proposal, which would move much of the research for communicative large animal disease from an aging Plum Island lab. In addition to foot and mouth disease, the proposed $451 million lab would research other bovine and swine diseases that are not harmful to humans, and two diseases classified as BSL-4. That designation is reserved for diseases that “pose a high risk of life-threatening disease in animals and humans through the aerosol route and for which there is no known vaccine or therapy,” according to the DHS June 2008 draft environmental impact statement for the project.

Just over 100 people attended a public hearing in Flora Aug. 5, with a lone attendee, Lynda Hays, taking a dissenting stance.

“I just want to know, how does this benefit us?” Hays asked, as reported by The Clarion-Ledger.

With jobs scarce in Mississippi, the official consensus is that bringing such a facility into the state would begin a research and development boom.

“This is a gigantic opportunity, not just for Flora and central Mississippi, but for the whole state,” Barbour told The Clarion-Ledger.

Other towns the DHS is considering for the lab aren’t quite as enthusiastic.

The Raleigh, N.C., City Council voted unanimously to oppose the lab in the neighboring city of Butner, and wrote a letter to the DHS requesting they remove the site from consideration. Citizens asked the DHS whether the release of infectious pathogens could spread through air, surface water, wastewater, or through animal or human contact.

“We just felt that was not thoroughly addressed,” said Jayne Kirkpatrick, Raleigh’s public affairs director.

Raleigh, like Jackson, is a county away and downstream from the proposed lab site. And, although Raleigh did not have hard evidence that the lab’s pathogens could be spread through the water supply, Kirkpatrick said DHS never said they couldn’t be, never said how they were going to assure against potential water contamination, or what their response would be in the event of a leak. The city also had concerns about general security and fire protection the DHS did not address. Durham, N.C., voiced the same concerns and came to the same conclusion.

O'Neill downplayed those concerns last week. “This facility is like a submarine inside a bank vault. The reason it costs so much to build is the redundancy of security measures,” O’Neill said, saying if he and his family lived right next door, he wouldn’t oppose it. O’Neill compared the lab to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, which is in a highly populous area and also deals with deadly pathogens.

Grady Thrasher III of Athens FAQ, a citizen’s group formed in 2007 to oppose the proposed lab in Athens, Ga., says the CDC comparison is disingenuous.

“It’s all wishful thinking,” Thrasher said. “The CDC has these very small containment areas to study pathogens. This thing will be as big as a football field with a herd of large cows in it. They’re going to be spraying those cows; they’re going to be releasing mosquitoes to infect the cows. And then they’re going to have literally thousands of pounds of infected meat to dispose of. They’ve never tried anything like this before.”

In addition, Thrasher said, the lab will have to dispose of thousands of pounds of infected waste, something on the order of 100 pounds of waste per cow, per day.

The potential boom also comes with a big up-front price tag for Madison County and the state of Mississippi. Flora would need to make numerous infrastructure improvements including roads, water tanks and wells. Entergy would need to build a new substation to provide enough electricity.

“It’s really a return on investment,” said O’Neill. “We’re financing a lot of this, not all of it, but a lot of it through $88 million (in) bonds. That’s what the Legislature passed … to allow us to have the site ready. That is similar to other sites in the competition.”

Permanent new job estimates range from 250 to 350, most of those for experienced, highly skilled researchers the likes of which are not currently available in Mississippi, and who would likely be imported from Plum Island.

“They’re going to be imported, I’m sure,” Kirkpatrick said. “Other than that, maybe a couple more fast-food restaurants. It’s not going to have far-reaching economic impact.” Temporary construction jobs for the lab could number up to 1,600.

On Aug. 20, Larry Margasak of the Associated Press raised issues of political favoritism, pointing out that DHS ignored its own evaluations, which rank the Flora site 14th among 17 original U.S. sites under consideration. Nine sites that ranked higher were eliminated, but Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Sen. Thad Cochran is the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees DHS spending, raising the specter of “the Bush administration’s politicizing of government decisions.”

“We’re pleased and happy that our congressional delegation works to help Mississippi,” O’Neill said, “but I think if you look at the other states a lot of them are the same.”

“We think we have the dream team of all the proposals,” he added.

[Updated Aug. 23 to include quotes from interviews]

The Department of Homeland Security’s information on the proposed facility.

Homeland Security will consider your comments regarding the location of the lab but ONLY through Monday, August 25. After that, it's all over but the shouting.

You can write, fax or call in your comments as follows:

Online: e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Toll-Free Voice Mail (24/7): 1-866-501-NBAF (6223)

Toll-Free Fax: 1-866-508-NBAF (6223)

U.S. Mail: U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Science and Technology Directorate; James V. Johnson; Mail Stop #2100; 245 Murray Lane, SW; Building 410; Washington, D.C. 20528

Also see: Flora Bio Facility a ‘Prime Terrorist Target’?, an earlier JFP posting, which includes many links to information and news stories in other areas being considered for the facility.

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