The people should dictate death lab site
By KEN MIDKIFF
Published Friday, August 8, 2008
(http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Aug/20080808Comm003.asp)

Too bad elected and appointed officials aren’t blessed with the 20-20 foresight of their constituents, for in hindsight the decision of several citizens and organizations to oppose the Bio- and Agro-Defense (aka death) Facility sure looks like the right one.

Consider that it has recently been revealed that the existing Level 4 biodefense labs - of which Plum Island is one (although it is actually called something else, it is indeed a biodefense lab or a quasi-military establishment) - haven’t been quite as secure as the Department Homeland Security or the U.S. Department of Agriculture had touted.

Although it is a bit of a stretch to say the federal agencies lied (government agencies wouldn’t lie to us, would they?), they did not reveal the whole truth.

Surely, the homeland security and USDA folks knew of the various problems at Plum Island and other alleged "agricultural" Level 4 labs - actually biodefense facilities. Surely, they knew that bacteria and viruses had escaped their closely guarded labs/cells and that a number of lab animals (including horses) had died as a result. Surely, they knew of the concerns that airborne germs had been detected in onshore communities. Surely, they knew that placing such a facility in the midst of a relatively large Midwest population center, surrounded by land devoted to raising livestock, was not a very good idea - given the experiences at other high-tech, high-security facilities.

But the folks in charge asserted there had been no problems. Turns out they were not as forthcoming with the truth as our somewhat gullible elected and appointed officials had assumed. In short, our state economic development director, the mayor of Columbia (who had no authority to speak for the city), University of Missouri leadership and most of our city staff swallowed these fabrications. And, of course, every contractor in town was salivating at the prospect of building a multimillion-dollar structure. Developers saw a market for all their cheaply built expensive residences, and they jumped on board.

Fortunately, a few concerned and knowledgeable citizens found out the facts. These facts were no farther away than the public library or the nearest computer. Armed with these facts, citizens and citizens’ groups fended off the location of the death lab on New Haven Road - right next to a mobile home court, an elementary school and an assisted-living center. A short distance away was a U.S. Geological Survey aquatic toxicity facility and MU’s livestock-rearing research center (South Farms).

After local opposition from citizens erupted and an agricultural commodity group expressed concern, the homeland security people deemed it better to go somewhere else and subject other folks to the deadly organisms. They also learned it is best to avoid attention.

But in a bus tour of the proposed location, several city officials - including at least the public works director - went along on this visit and tried to convince the Homeland Security site investigators of the virtues of the New Haven location. At a gathering of elected and appointed pooh-bahs at the University of Missouri, these same people extolled how safe this location would be. Not deterred by a few facts and following the bouncing ball of economic development (an illusion, at best), these misinformed or uninformed officials were 100 percent wrong.

Because, as citizens pointed out then, and it is now common knowledge - at least among those who watch TV, listen to the radio or read the newspaper - that one of the chief scientists at the Fort Detrick, Md., biodefense laboratory committed suicide because the FBI was closing in on him pertaining to the 2001 anthrax attacks. There has been quite a bit of criticism about the FBI’s methods, but we also learn this fellow was likely quite unstable from a mental health perspective and that there are likely other scientists with a chip or two on their shoulders that might compel them to release germs for which there are no known cures.

We now learn that, unless said scientists have been committed to or treated in a mental institution, there’s not a lot that is done. This is not something that can be blown off - there are literally thousands of folks working at biodefense labs.

All of this does not bode well for other "finalists" for the Plum Island relocation. Now it is revealed that maybe this isn’t such a good idea and it might be a better idea to keep all this bad stuff offshore.

Homeland security folks should listen to citizens more and elected and appointed officials less.