Bio Lab in Galveston Raises Concerns

[babylonsister]

Bio Lab in Galveston Raises Concerns

By JAMES C. McKINLEY JR
Published: October 28, 2008


GALVESTON, Tex. — Much of the University of Texas medical school on this island suffered flood damage during Hurricane Ike, except for one gleaming new building, a national biological defense laboratory that will soon house some of the most deadly diseases in the world.

Researchers working in the Robert E. Shope Medical Laboratory at the University of Texas in Galveston. The school built the smaller laboratory as part of its efforts to procure the national laboratory.

The Galveston National Laboratory opens on Nov. 11.

How a laboratory where scientists plan to study viruses like Ebola and Marburg ended up on a barrier island where hurricanes regularly wreak havoc puzzles some environmentalists and community leaders.

“It’s crazy, in my mind,” said Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer in Houston. “I just find an amazing willingness among the people on the Texas coast to accept risks that a lot of people in the country would not accept.”

Officials at the laboratory and at the National Institutes of Health, which along with the university is helping to pay for the $174 million building, say it can withstand any storm the Atlantic hurls at it.

Built atop concrete pylons driven 120 feet into the ground, the seven-floor laboratory was designed to stand up to 140-mile-an-hour winds. Its backup generators and high-security laboratories are 30 feet above sea level.

“The entire island can wash away and this is still going to be here,” Dr. James W. LeDuc, the deputy director of the laboratory, said. “With Hurricane Ike, we had no damage. The only evidence the hurricane occurred was water that was blown under one of the doors and a puddle in the lobby.”

The project enjoyed the strong support of three influential Texas Republicans: President Bush, a former Texas governor; Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison; and the former House majority leader, Tom DeLay, whose district includes part of Galveston County. Officials at the National Institutes of Health, however, say the decision to put the lab here was based purely on the merits. It is to open Nov. 11.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/us/29lab.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[Muttocracy]

1. Galveston?!

:eyes:

[ColbertWatcher]

2. I hope this is not a Ronpaul(!)-supported earmark! n/t