Dan's Papers - August 31, 2007 - Future Of Plum Island A Level 4?

Talk Of Making Plum Island A Place To Study The Ebola Virus Makes Some Uncomfortable

On the big island off Orient Point, on the very tip of the North Fork, almost no one, even the 200 employees who work there, know totally what goes on at the secret government labs located on Plum Island. Nelson De Mille in his novel Plum Island left the impression that the government didn't want anyone to truly know. Many rumors for years were passed around the local high schools of the North Fork of bad things that happened there. Now times are changing.

Receiving a thirty million dollar spruce up just this year alone from the Department of Homeland Security, Plum Island is the subject of Southold Town meetings, including this last week. It's a political balancing act of not wanting the facility to become a level 4-research lab (currently it is a level 3) because then it might become the target of a terrorist attack and anyone else who might like to get their hands on toxins fatal to humans such as the Ebola virus and Anthrax. A conversion to a level 4 would entail spending an estimated $451 million price tag. A half billion dollar potential project, even one as dangerous as this always energizes both pro and con elements in the community. Senator Clinton and Congressman Tim Bishop are not in favor of it for long and short term safety reasons, however others believe in risk taking in order to keep or produce even more jobs in the region. A new level 4 facility is now down to five possible locations. It is to be built by the Department of Homeland Security and is to be called the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility. At the moment Plum Island is not an official finalist but sort of an alternative. Larry Orluskie a Homeland security spokesman reportedly states the final decision is to be made in 2009.

Southold Supervisor Scot Russell is on record as not dismissing the idea of a level 4 facility being built on Plum Island. The Supervisor believes it should be noted the importance of jobs to the region long term should a program like this be started out here. Although almost everyone including Supervisor Russell considers the plant being constructed on Plum Island "unlikely," some people are not happy with firmly closing the door thus perhaps dooming the research done on the island. One sail boat owner who sails off the island said, "My view is why take the risk, jobs or no jobs, I mean anthrax and Ebola are not things to even have a remote possibility of having an accident. I hope they keep the water tower up. I use it as a marker in slight to bad fog."

This boater was basically agreeing with Southold town Supervisor Russell when he reportedly expressed a desire to leave the facility, "as it is." However the research reportedly done on animal disease research these last 56 years may be not as needy in times of new budgets' priorities due to the new age of terrorism we are now in. Many understand the importance of the 200 well-paid jobs the labs on the island bring to an area. With the proposed new level 4 facility to be completed 2012 nobody anywhere is definitively stating the fate of the facility on Plum Island.

Views on this subject and other Plum Island topics are being entertained at the department of Homeland Security at meetings and via questions through email. To ask a question or offer advice, comments or ideas send an email to nbafprogrammanager@dhs.gov (up until September 27 all will be read and answered.} For those who still use regular mail send your notes to, 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 or fax it to 1-866-508-6223 or even toll free voice mail at 1-866-501-6223.