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.
With the exception of any written comments made to the Department of Homeland Security prior to an Aug. 25 deadline, along with whatever last-minute incentives might be offered up by the state government, and whatever political pressure might be brought to bear, Thursday's DHS-sponsored public meetings were pretty much the last word this community will have on the proposed National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility.
So, now is as good a time as any to look back at how and where the proponents and opponents of bringing the animal disease research facility to a 67-acre University of Georgia-owned tract at the intersection of South Milledge Avenue and Whitehall Road made, or failed to make, their respective cases.
First, a look at the opposition, spearheaded by Grady Thrasher and Kathy Prescott, the husband and wife team behind the nonprofit group For Athens Quality-of-life, with able assists from local freelance writer Matt DeGennaro and a cast of ... dozens? Hundreds? A few thousand?
It's arguable whether opponents' sometimes over-the-top rhetoric (dubbing the NBAF a "Bio Terror Lab," for example) or their hooting at, and attempted shouting down, of the lab's proponents during public hearings, hurt them or not.
They were, however, unquestionably hurt by their inability to persuade more than a token number of opponents to show up. At each of Thursday's meetings, the NBAF opponents numbered somewhere in the few dozens. It was a lackluster turnout for an opposition movement that has consistently tried to claim "a majority" of area residents are strongly opposed to the NBAF coming to Athens-Clarke County.
The NBAF opponents clearly recognized the lack of truly significant numbers at the meetings were a problem.
One Thursday speaker suggested that, given the University of Georgia's leading role in trying to lure the NBAF, UGA employees who might otherwise have spoken out were silent out of fear of losing their jobs.
Another speaker contended news reports from a few days ago indicating a DHS official had moved a Mississippi site up on the list of potential NBAF locations might have convinced some local opponents the lab wouldn't be coming to Athens.
Time for some back-of-the-envelope debunking: There are somewhere north of 100,000 people in Athens-Clarke County. UGA employs somewhere around 10,000 people. Thus, the NBAF opposition should comprise a healthy number of people without UGA ties who, for whatever reason, opted not to take advantage of a final chance to try to sway the DHS against Athens-Clarke County.
And as far as the story on political shenanigans regarding the NBAF siting, is it reasonable to think local NBAF opponents wouldn't have relished an opportunity to use it to rail against the DHS on Thursday?
It is, then, fair to conclude opposition to the NBAF might not have been, and might never be, as widespread as the facility's most vocal opponents have tried to make the rest of the community, and the DHS, believe.
That's not to say, though, the NBAF proponents - largely comprising UGA officials and bioscience professors, state and local Chamber of Commerce and economic development folks, and federal, state and local elected officials - presented a particularly effective case.
The economic development argument relied, in large part, on the well-worn notion that landing a major employer like the NBAF would entice other bioscience and biotechnology firms to locate in and around Athens-Clarke County. It's a tempting and not altogether unreasonable expectation, but there are problems.
The DHS has indicated the vast majority of the NBAF employees will come from an existing federal animal disease research facility. That might be a contrast to any private-sector bioscience firm that might look at Athens-Clarke County as a possible location. Presumably, most private-sector projects would be expansions rather than relocations, meaning those firms would rely far more heavily on the local workforce. And, as won't be forgotten in these parts for a long time, Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties recently lost the competition for a Swiss pharmaceutical firm, due, in part, to that company's concerns about workforce readiness.
For their part, UGA officials and researchers relied in part on arguments about a loosely defined synergy between that institution and the NBAF that would somehow enhance both enterprises - although it's not particularly clear how or when that might happen - to convince the community to accept the project.
Thus, it was a bit hard to completely discount the NBAF opponent who suggested Thursday the academic boosters of the NBAF seemed to be doing little more than auditioning for jobs at the facility.
A final decision on the NBAF is expected in December, with little for the community to do but wait it out. And in the end, it might not matter what the facility's proponents or opponents have had to say.
The final decision on the NBAF will be made be the same DHS official who arbitrarily moved the Mississippi site up on the siting list.
• Jim Thompson is editorial page editor of the Athens Banner-Herald. He can be contacted at (706) 208-2222 or by e-mail at jim.thompson@onlineathens.com.
