[CTRL] Plum Island

[William Shannon]

 -Caveat Lector-

How Safe Is Plum Island?
By Laura Williams
>From The New York Post
http://www.nypost.com/living/16452.htm
10-20-99



If the federal government said it wanted to study chemical warfare agents -
such as anthrax, an invisible killer that can pack more than 100 million
lethal doses in a single gram - a mile and a half from your home, you'd be
concerned, right?

Well, that's a possibility residents, farmers and fisherman along the North
Fork of Long Island are facing.

The Clinton administration is considering beefing up security at the
45-year-old Animal Disease Center on Plum Island - an 840-acre,
lamb-chop-shaped piece of land a little more than a mile off the tip of the
North Fork - so scientists can study anthrax and other potentially
devastating diseases, such as screw worm and mad-cow disease.

Though, for this story, The Post wasn't allowed on Plum Island, where several
labs house scientists currently studying animal killers such as
foot-and-mouth disease, we spent the day out on the bucolic North Fork.

>From Orient Point, at the tip of Long Island, Plum Island looks innocent
enough, just a blob on the water. (It's actually 3 miles long and a mile
wide.)

The place is shrouded in mystery. It's not just the barbed wire and the "No
Trespassing" signs circling the boat-launch off Orient Point - where boats
ferry workers to and from Plum Island twice daily - that give the place an
eerie atmosphere. The island itself is patrolled by sea and air and is
monitored by electric sensors.

Just looking at it, you can easily see why Nelson Demille set his novel "Plum
Island" here - a thriller about two scientists working on the island who
mysteriously die.

Indeed, the potential upgrade of the island is the stuff of science fiction.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is responsible for
running the island, is reportedly seeking $215 million over three years to
upgrade the Biosafety Level 3 facility to Biosafety Level 4, the most
dangerous. There are currently just four Level 4 facilities in the entire
country.

At Level 4, workers in designated areas must wear seamless pressurized suits
- a la the virus-scare film "Outbreak" - complete with internal life-support
systems. And of course, sealed labs equipped with the highest-tech safety
equipment would be built to prevent any particle, however tiny, from getting
out.

But local leaders say they haven't gotten any kind of briefing about this
from the federal government. Greenport Mayor David Kapell - who says he wants
the upgrade because it would bring an infusion of federal dollars to town -
admits he's nonetheless a bit miffed he hasn't yet gotten any official word.

"I've only known about this since it was disclosed [a month ago] in the
newspaper," he said in his office in the tiny, countrified town right on the
North Fork's Peconic Bay.

"At this point it's important to point out that this is very much not a done
deal," says USDA spokesman Andy Solomon. "[USDA] Secretary [Dan] Glickman has
made clear his intention that if the decision is made to seek an upgrade, he
will insist on opportunities for public input in the process."

Shelter Island Supervisor Gerard Siller has also been kept in the dark, but
unlike Kapell, he sees no benefit in having deadly diseases studied so close
to his island, which sits between the North and South forks.

"We don't want it, period," he says. "Our evacuation problem is twofold. One,
getting off the island" - the tranquil island's 2,300 year-round population
swells past 10,000 in the summer, but the two ferries running between the
island and the mainland can transport only about 15 cars every 15 minutes.
"Two, the problem of getting off the East End," Siller says. "The roads can't
handle it." Indeed, the North Fork is serviced by rural two-lane routes,
dotted with wineries, pumpkin patches and farms. His fears are echoed by many
of his constituents.

"Why can't they do it any in the middle of Kansas or something, where there's
no one around?" asks Harvey Katz, a Shelter Island resident and owner of
Harvey Claudio's Wines and Liquors in Greenport. "Stuff could escape and
nobody would know."

Fears about diseases escaping are nothing new.

There was a great hue and cry from East Enders in the early 1950s, when the
feds first announced plans to study livestock diseases like foot-and-mouth
and other exotic animal diseases on the island, named for the beach plums
that grew along its shores. (It's currently the only location in the United
States where infectious foreign animal disease agents can legally be
studied.)

Back then, the eight dairies in Southold - worried a wayward, windblown
microbe would decimate their herds - went on record as opposing it. Oyster
growers were scared that even if their harvests were lucky enough to survive
any diseases, the public's fear about possible taint would wipe out their $6
million annual business - and they bitterly opposed the plans at two federal
hearings. And local politicians banded together to protest, arguing the risk
could cause "a serious threat to the county's future" and kill its reputation
as burgeoning tourism spot.

The government pretty much ignored all this hubbub went ahead with its plans,
which some residents say accounts for the current lack of organized protest
against the latest reports. "It doesn't matter what I think; I don't see
anything stopping the government," says Bruce Bollman, from behind the hunks
of cheese and freshly baked fruit pies at Bruce's Cheese Emporium in
Greenport.

Despite the fears, there haven't been any major disasters, yet.

The stringent safety measures, so far, appear to be working: Hunts are
regularly organized to track down and kill deer, in case they swim to the
mainland and spread contagious diseases. Workers leaving a building
containing hazardous materials must shower, shampoo, scrub their fingernails
and change clothes to ensure no deadly microbes leave with them. (Some busy
workers have bragged about having to take more than 20 showers a day.)
Special air filters ensure no air leaves the buildings, and all waste is
incinerated at very high temperatures.

It should be noted, however, that in 1993 the federal Occupational Safety and
Health Administration charged the center with 25 "serious violations" for
infractions such as improperly disposing of needles and other sharp objects
used in research. And in 1995, the Agriculture Department was fined $111,000
for illegally storing hazardous materials.

And one seaman who five years ago worked on the boats that carried the
workers to and from the island says his experience has given him little
confidence in the place's safety.

"They took two of us [seamen] and told us they needed us to rip up the
concrete floor of a holding facility that had penned an animal," says the
27-year-old man who didn't want his name printed. "I found out they had been
studying Japanese encephalitis in there. The floor was concrete, and the dust
was flying everywhere.

"I freaked out. I was a boat guy. By no means was I qualified or briefed
about the facility. I didn't know how to get out in an emergency." He ended
up leaving walking off the job that afternoon.

Still, some locals see a bright side to Plum Island and to the upgrade. "Plum
Island is an important socio-econonic asset for the North Fork, specifically
Greenport," says Kapell, the Greenport mayor. He's a transplanted Upper East
Sider who runs real estate and antiques businesses in Greenpoint.

"It employs 200 to 300 people in a broad spectrum of levels, from the lowest
end up to scientists. There's barely a family from here that doesn't have a
member who's been employed at Plum Island . . . The scientists who live here
add a dimension to Greenport, which is traditionally blue-collar, that it
wouldn't have otherwise."

Kapell doesn't like the other most obvious options for bringing money into
town - construction and tourism - because they would change the character of
the area. "It's rural, agricultural. We want some [development and tourism],
but we want bulkheads. We like the blue-collar mix . . . Plum Island has a
good 50-year record, which tells me we should not react in a reactionary way
to this thing that may be scary on the surface."

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