Plum Island Still in Running for Lab, DHS Says

A senior U.S. Homeland Security Department official said yesterday that Plum Island had not been eliminated from the competition to house an expensive new biodefense laboratory, Newsday reported (see GSN, Aug. 22).

The New York island is home to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which is due to be replaced around 2013 by the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility.

While the island is not on the official finalists’ list of five locations for the $450 million center, DHS national laboratories director James Johnson said it is still in the running as more than a fallback site.

“No decisions have been made,” he said during a community meeting in the Long Island town of Southold.  “We are at the beginning of the process.”

The new site would be a Biosafety Level 4 facility, authorized to work with the highly dangerous pathogens that could be used in acts of terrorism.  The existing Plum Island laboratory is a Biosafety Level 3 facility.  Should Plum Island get the nod, it would be demolished and replaced by the new laboratory center.

New York Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton and Representative Tim Bishop this week issued a statement of opposition to increasing the biosafety level at Plum Island.   Its relative closeness to New York City would make such a move too risky, they said.

An accident at the facility could be disastrous for nearby Long Island, residents said yesterday at the meeting.

“You would have 3 million people trying to get off the island.  I can’t think of anything closer to hell,” said Robin Imandt.

Johnson noted some benefits of reusing Plum Island, including a staff of scientists already conducting relevant research, Newsday reported.  One hundred security cameras and a “full robust” evacuation strategy are in place, he said.

Other sites in contention for the laboratory are in Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas.  A decision is expected in fall 2008 (Emerson Clarridge, Newsday, Aug. 24).

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