Officials quietly OK facilities to test bioweapons agents
By Patty Henetz
Associated Press
Military officials have quietly authorized construction of four temporary germ laboratories at Dugway Proving Ground that would cultivate and test biological warfare agents, citing an immediate need "to deal with an apparent gap between readiness to defend against (biological warfare) attacks and the probable threat."
The authorization was revealed in an abridged environmental assessment finding of no significant impact, or FONSI, published in mid-December in the Federal Register and in the small print of newspaper back pages.
But the finding came before final approval of a required environmental impact statement whose 2002 draft, still under Pentagon review, called for just one permanent annex to the Dugway germ warfare complex, not four temporary labs.
Steve Erickson, director of the watchdog Citizen Education Project, said he stumbled across the FONSI notice from Dugway commander Col. Gary Harter in the small-print legal notice section of a Salt Lake newspaper's Dec. 13 edition.
Erickson, a longtime citizen advocate who keeps close watch on federal programs, said the seeming stealth and backward process makes people suspicious about Defense Department plans to expand bioweapons defense testing and training at Dugway.
"The real concern is what are we doing here? All of a sudden, we're building new labs without the public being informed," Erickson said. "Obviously, they're in a big rush. Why?"
Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake, also wants to know. He is sponsoring a bill that would revive the Utah Federal Research Committee, in whose earlier incarnation former Sen. Frances Farley in 1979 first heard about the infamous MX mobile nuclear missile program planned to crisscross the desert in tunnels between Salt Lake City and Reno.
While the National Environmental Policy Act administered by the Energy Department requires reviews that include public notice and comment on Dugway expansion, Davis wants a committee specifically dedicated to watching out for the state's interests.
Three of the custom-built Dugway modular labs would be for biosafety level 3 agents. The other lab would be for biosafety level 2 testing.
The federal Centers for Disease Control's list of level 3 pathogens includes yellow fever and the mosquito-borne West Nile virus and Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis. Level 4 agents — the most dangerous, which are not allowed in level 3 labs — are pathogens that have neither vaccines nor cures, such as Ebola and Lassa hemorrhagic fevers.
In an e-mail response to questions The Associated Press asked during an interview, Dugway spokeswoman Paula Nicholson said Dugway would not reveal which level 3 bioagents would be tested in the temporary labs because the issue is "sensitive."
Nicholson also said the extended 9,000-foot runway that the Legislature appropriated $2 million for last year was designed for cargo aircraft such as the C-130, which can carry more than 100 troops, as well as fighter aircraft.
Dugway never requested the funds, she said.
Lawmakers last year justified giving the $2 million to the federal government as a way to show support for Hill Air Force Base during the upcoming round of base closures, saying the adjacent Michael Army airstrip was in such bad shape jet pilots and heavy cargo planes couldn't land on it.
Richard Melton, deputy director of the Utah Health Department, said Friday that Dugway gave him an early heads-up on the FONSI. The state had no reason to comment on the finding, Melton said, because it wasn't concerned about any part of the plan.
Biosafety level 3 laboratories "are not extraordinary," Melton said. "They are all over the state." The health department got the early notice because Melton and two others in the department have a working relationship and top security clearance with Dugway, he said.
Melton said the health department is neither for nor against the Federal Research Committee bill, but the 12 committee members wouldn't have the security clearances necessary for a meaningful Dugway probe.
The health department isn't required to publicize information it gets on federal projects, he said.
Melton said he understood why people might perceive the lack of transparency as secrecy. "But somewhere you have to make the decision that we've got 99 percent covered and we have to accept the 1 percent that gets through," he said.
Dugway, the nation's leading bioweapon and defense test military zone, covers a Rhode Island-size patch of desert 60 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
The Citizen Education Project was the sole respondent to Harter's request for comment from anyone having an interest in the environmental effects of the Dugway plan.
In a Feb. 3 reply to Erickson's comments, Harter said he signed off on the FONSI Jan. 12 "due to the need to quickly begin pouring the footings for the trailers and to meet customer schedules on biological defense requirements — matters of national security."
Harter said Dugway needed to meet the needs of customers — that is, federal agencies and federal contractors.
Erickson last year tried through a federal Freedom of Information Act request to get the list of level 3 bioagents Dugway wanted to test. A Pentagon official replied that releasing the information "could enable unauthorized individuals to locate and acquire biological agents and could reasonably be expected to assist terrorists."
The implication miffed Erickson. "When they pull stuff like this, it just makes everyone more suspicious," he said.
Harter said the labs won't likely have "significant or cumulative effects on the environment" even in a disaster such as a windstorm or earthquake because any release would be confined to the immediate area, and the harsh desert climate would shorten a bioagent's lifespan.
Dugway's mission expanded after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and the United States found Iraq capable of germ warfare. In 1991, Dugway began anthrax testing, eventually testing several deadly germs in order to find a way to detect bioattacks in times of war. Dugway now stores the pathogens in a secure laboratory that Erickson and others call "Pandora's Icebox."
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