Updated:
Tuesday December 30, 2008
Updated:
Tuesday December 30, 2008
GOVERNMENT RECOMMENDS KANSAS FOR NBAF
Click Here
_______________
ATHENS GROUP GLAD BIOLAB NOT COMING TO TOWN
"WE WILL ACCEPT THE BLAME, BUT WE CAN'T TAKE CREDIT" Click Here
___________________
DRAINS OVERFLOW AT LAB - UGA FACILITY CONTAMINATED
Click Here and Here
VET SCHOOL LEAK KEPT QUIET
Click Here
LAB'S 'MINOR INCIDENTS' STIR MAJOR DOUBTS
Click Here
_____________________
ANTHRAX CASE RENEWS QUESTIONS ON BIOTERROR EFFORT
From The New York Times:
With so many people involved, there is insufficient federal oversight of biodefense facilities to make sure the laboratories follow security rules and report accidents that might threaten lab workers or, in an extreme case, lead to a release that might endanger the public, Mr. Rhodes testified.
Mr. Stupak, the congressman from Michigan, remains concerned.
“You have all these universities tripping over each other trying to be high-level biosecurity labs,” he said. “What the nation gets is a very expensive bill, less security and a greater risk to the surrounding communities.” Click here for full story
____________________
FOOT-AND-MOUTH PLAN USED FLAWED STUDY
"The Bush administration has no evidence to support its contention that it would be safe to move research on highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease to the U.S. mainland near livestock, congressional investigators said Thursday....Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said plans by the Department of Homeland Security were not only "baffling, but dangerous." Click Here
_____________________
HOMELAND SECURITY WINS CONTROL OVER FOOT-AND-MOUTH RESEARCH
(5/7/08) - "Lawmakers on Wednesday tentatively agreed that national security officials should fully control the expected transfer of research of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease from an offshore laboratory to the U.S. mainland near livestock...The numbers of livestock in the counties and surrounding areas of the finalists range from 542,507 in Kansas to 132,900 in Georgia, according to an internal Homeland Security study." Click Here
_____________________
SCIENTIST'S ATTORNEY SAYS UGA SPREAD FALSE DATA TO WIN GRANTS
(4/18/08)“I can fully appreciate the ramifications it would have on the University of Georgia’s bid to become a national center for agro-bioterrorism research if President Adams were to truthfully acknowledge the role his office has played in the fabrication of scientific data..." Click Here
______________________
CHECK OUR NEWS PAGE FOR THE LATEST COVERAGE.....
______________________
$25M PLUS IN INCENTIVES FOR NBAF
"Georgia officials have offered more than $25 million in incentives to draw a federal research laboratory to Athens....The state of Georgia will provide about $15 million, the UGA Research Foundation $5 million and Athens-Clarke County about $1 million in incentives if Homeland Security picks 66 acres off South Milledge Avenue to build the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility. That doesn't include free land valued at about $5.3 million." Click here
_____________________
ACCIDENTS AT DISEASE LAB ACKNOWLEDGED
"The only U.S. facility allowed to research the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease experienced several accidents with the feared virus, the Bush administration acknowledged Friday." (04/11/08) Click here
________________________
BIOLAB PITCH A SECRET
"A University of Georgia-led group is considering spending more money to draw a federal bioresearch laboratory to Athens, but taxpayers might never know."
Click here
______________________
FEDS WANT POWER PLANT FOR NBAF
"The federal government has asked Kansas and other states vying for a new Department of Homeland Security laboratory to commit to building a power plant for the facility, officials confirmed Friday."
Click here
"Georgia officials, including spokesmen for the University of Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue and U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens, said Homeland Security hasn't asked Georgia to build a power plant as far as they know...." Click here
_______________________
DHS RELEASES EIS SCOPING REPORT
FROM THE DHS WEBSITE "The NBAF environmental impact statement (EIS) scoping period occurred from July 31 through September 28, 2007. During that time, the Department conducted eight public meetings in the vicinity of the proposed NBAF sites and in one regional location. The results of this process are documented in the NBAF EIS Scoping Report"
________________________
Against Opposition: Homeland Security Defends NBAF - Oconee Leader ....Click here to read
____________________
Raleigh, N.C. — The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to oppose a federal bio-defense laboratory proposed for Granville County....click here to read
From The Flagpole:"Davison reiterated that the NBAF proposal will not be debated by ACC Commissioners “on the floor,” and that they will not be expected to take formal action on the matter..." click here to read
_____________________
REPORT FROM NORTH CAROLINA'S DHS 2/21 MEETING "Frank allowed and facilitated a format of questions that pressed the DHS for answers to all questions. Having been present at both meetings, I only wish the same format would have been afforded to the concerned residents of Athens. In Athens if the DHS didn’t completely answer a question they were not pressed further and no follow-up questions were allowed...." Click here
WHY WERE NO FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS ALLOWED AT THE ATHENS MEETING? According to a 2/14/08 UGA Press Release "Each person approaching the microphone will be allowed one initial question and one follow-up question."
Click here
____________________
Plum Island: Deadly Diseases on the Move?
AP Video
Edward Hammond of The Sunshine Project
talks about The Myths of NBAF
Click here for Videos
Download a Flyer!
Download and print this informational flyer to spread the word about why we don't want NBAF. Click Here to Download a Flyer.
Download Edward Hammond's Slide Presentation The Myths of NBAF here (.pdf document)
DO YOU HAVE A LETTER, COMMENTARY OR FORUM THAT WAS NOT PUBLISHED IN THE LOCAL PRESS? Please send it to director@athensfaq.org, and we will post it here.
There are a host of elected officials and other community leaders who, if they haven't done so already, need to clear some significant time on their Thursday schedules to attend the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's public meetings on the siting, construction and operation of the planned National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility. A 67-acre University of Georgia-owned tract on South Milledge Avenue at Whitehall Road is among the finalists as a potential NBAF site.
Among those who should be seen and heard during the Thursday sessions at the Georgia Center for Continuing at 1197 S. Lumpkin St. on the University of Georgia campus are Athens-Clarke County Mayor Heidi Davison, all 10 Athens-Clarke commissioners, Athens Area Chamber of Commerce President Doc Eldridge and the University of Georgia administrators who've been advocating Athens-Clarke County as the best site for the NBAF.
There will be ample opportunity for those local leaders to be seen and heard. The DHS is hosting two four-hour sessions Thursday, from 12:30-4:30 p.m., and again from 6-10 p.m. According to DHS, each session will comprise a one-hour open house during which participants can talk with experts on NBAF-related topics and view informational materials, as well as register to provide oral comments later in the meeting. The open house will be followed by a one-hour DHS presentation on the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the NBAF. The final two hours of each session will be dedicated to recording oral comments on the environmental impact statement.
Until recently, local debate over siting the federal animal disease research facility has focused largely on risk factors.
On the one hand, NBAF opponents have argued that even the DHS's own Draft Environmental Impact Statement provides evidence that the facility carries an unacceptable risk for the community. At one point, the document suggests that any escape of mosquitoes used in the lab for transmitting viruses "... could lead to a more rapid dispersal of the diseases to larger human populations ... and ultimately lead to a permanent reservoir of virus."
On the other hand, NBAF proponents with scientific expertise have countered the draft environmental document contemplates worst-case scenarios. In a July 15 opinion piece in this newspaper, UGA Vice President for Research David Lee wrote the document "described worst-case scenarios for outbreaks from the facility, no matter how unlikely the chain of events leading to these scenarios. A worst-case scenario is not a likely scenario."
Recent days, however, have brought information that moves the debate over the NBAF out of the somewhat murky arena of risk tolerance versus risk avoidance in pursuit of economic development.
An Associated Press report published Monday in this newspaper revealed that a senior Homeland Security official, a political appointee, overruled government experts appointed by the agency and moved a Flora, Miss., site up on the list of potential NBAF sites, despite the site having been scored lower than a number of other potential locations. The AP story noted "Mississippi's lawmakers include Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the (Homeland Security) department's oversight committee ... and Sen. Thad Cochran, the senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is expected to approve money to build" the research facility.
No one should be surprised politics has become a factor in deciding where to locate a multimillion-dollar federal facility that carries the promise of being a boon to economic development. It is, however, fair now to wonder how politics might figure into the future development of the NBAF - in terms, for instance, of the selection of construction contractors and facility administrators. Those decisions will, of course, have direct bearing on how safely the NBAF will be built and operated.
That's why the community leaders who have been consistent NBAF boosters need to be in attendance at Thursday's DHS meetings. They need to be on record questioning whether politics will continue to play a role in establishing the NBAF.
It's certainly all right for local leaders looking for needed economic development opportunities to rely on assurances from highly trained and experienced researchers the NBAF can be operated safely. It would, however, be the height of irresponsibility for that leadership to turn a blind eye to the danger posed when politics is inserted into a process that must be nothing less than a scientifically rigorous enterprise.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 081308
Link
