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The Army is facing unexpectedly fierce opposition
to its plans to build a laboratory in Utah for conducting experiments
with deadly germ warfare agents. Recent public hearings held near the
Army's Dugway Proving Ground, where the laboratory would be located,
and in Salt Lake City, 70 miles away, were attended almost exclusively
by citizens and public officials opposed to the proposed biological
aerosol facility. The hearings followed the February release of a
draft environmental impact statement (EIS) concluding that there is
"no cause for concern" that dangerous biological agents might escape
from the laboratory.
In the past two weeks, Utah Governor Norman H. Bangerter, Sen. Orrin
G. Hatch (R-Utah) and several local officials have come out against
the plan, stirring rumors that the Army might reconsider its choice of
the Utah site. Those rumors, however, are "not correct," according to
Army spokesperson John Chapla. "A number of significant operational
and safety issues were raised in the public hearing process... and
we'll address those issues as part of the environmental impact
statement process," Chapla told SCIENCE NEWS. "We will work through
the EIS process and make a decision based on a full consideration of
all the input that we've got."
The input, so far, has been largely negative. Hatch last week called
the Army's plan "reckless endangerment," suggesting the facility
should be built on Johnston Atoll in the South Pacific, where the Army
currently stores outdated chemical weapons. Bangerter says he is
"adamantly opposed" to construction of the facility in Utah. And a
local television station and a newspaper, both owned by the
politically influential Mormon church, have run editorials against the
Army's plans.
The controversy has resulted in the scheduling of a House joint
hearing in May, according to an aide to Rep. Wayne Owens (D-Utah). At
the hearing, the chairmen of the Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and
Interior and Insular Affairs Committees will look at the Dugway
facility "from both a safety and a national security standpoint."
The Army has argued that the new facility is needed to design defenses
to biological weapons being developed in other countries. Although it
is designed to accommodate genetically engineered microbes for which
no vaccines are currently available, the Army says it has no plans to
experiment with such organisms.
The Army's final environmental impact statement is scheduled to be
released in August.
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