Raleigh to hold hearing on biodefense facility planned just upstream of water supply

An important message from Upper Neuse Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks of the Neuse River Foundation. To read the Independent Weekly's in-depth story about the controversy surrounding this proposed facility, click here. Raleigh City Council meets at the Avery C. Upchurch Government Complex at 222 W. Hargett St.

Attention Wake County residents!

On Tuesday February 5, at 7pm the Raleigh City Council will hold a public hearing on the National Bio- and Agro- Defense Facility. Please
attend this important public hearing and express opposition to this proposed biodisease lab.

Would New York City leaders ever support a bio defense facility located just upstream from their drinking water supply? Absolutely Not! It is almost inconceivable that a facility conducting research on the world's deadliest diseases would be located on Knap of Reeds Creek, just upstream from Falls Lake -- a drinking water supply for 400,000 Wake County Citizens. The proposed National Bio and Agro Defense Facility would also be located 1 Mile of Holt Lake (Butner's drinking water supply), 2 Miles of Lake Michie (Durham's Drinking water supply) and 5 miles of Lake Rogers (Creedmoor's drinking water supply) and Little River Reservoir (Durham's drinking water). These are all important drinking water reservoirs located in the upper Neuse Basin. Why would anyone consider locating a potential terrorist target adjacent to 5 major drinking water supplies for more than 600,000 people?

The Department of Homeland Security, which is in charge of the project, announced July 11 that the Umstead Farm in Butner had made the short US of list to consider for possible sites. For decades, the new lab's predecessor, Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center, a 50-year-old, lab located off the tip of Long Island, N.Y., has been chronically plagued by grave security breaches and safety violations that point to managerial incompetence by Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For the proposed lab to handle the viruses it plans to conduct research on, Congress would have to rewrite the law to allow it on the mainland United States. Congress wisely passed a law in the 1950s, which prohibited the pathogens from leaving Plum Island, where it has remained for 50 years.

This would be a $450 million, state-of-the-art Biosafety Level-4 laboratory (the size of 36 Wal-Mart Stores) located at the headwaters of Knap of Reeds Creek, just above Falls Lake. The NBAF facility would use nearly 100,000 gallons of water per day from already stressed water supplies. It would release 80,000 gallons of treated wastewater through Granville County's problematic sewage treatment plant and discharge the effluent into Falls Lake. The lab must pretreat its water before sending it to Granville County, but we have seen many failing pretreatment systems try to take advantage of municipal waste water systems. Probably most concerning is the possible risk of air born pathogens, which Raleigh has raised concerns about, but Home Land Security is not responding to their concerns. Possible droplets of water called aerosols could potentially release bacteria or viruses into these water supplies, all located very close to this proposed facility.

Citizens in Granville County have overwhelmingly opposed this facility. Granville County Commissioners, the town of Creedmoor and Stem have all with drawn support their support for this project. Raleigh City leaders need to express their opposition to this facility before it goes any further in the approval process. Their decision could have a profound impact on Wake County's drinking water supply for the next 50 years. If Granville County does not want this project, why would Wake County leaders?

For more info, go to www.nobio.org.

UPDATE: On Feb. 19, Raleigh City Council decided to withhold its approval of the lab until the federal government provides more information. Click here for the list of questions the city is asking the feds to answer, which includes explaining plans for keeping runoff from the facility out of Falls Lake.