As the biolab world turnsJoint Kentucky-Tennessee bid for biolab fails
Kentucky and Tennnessee had an idea: Why not bid jointly for DHS’s biolab? The scattered nature of the proposed research facilities, however, and lack of workers with experience in high-security doomed the effort
Southern Kentucky will not be the site of a proposed bioterrorism-research which supporters say could have changed the economic fabric of the region for decades, but which also sparked protest about safety concerns. Kentucky and Tennessee submitted a joint proposal to build the lab on a 54-acre tract in a farming community in northeastern Pulaski County. The site did not make the list of five finalists. The scattered nature of the research facilities and the lack of workers with experience in high-security labs contributed to Kentucky’s bid being eliminated, officials said.
The Lexington Herald-Leader Bill Estep writes that officials across the country badly wanted to win the federal project because of the economic benefits — an estimated 400 jobs with an annual payroll of about $30 million, as well as the potential for related development at companies such as drug makers (note that Warwick Arden, a North Carolina State University dean involved in North Carolina’s bid, said estimates of the 20-year economic impact of the lab ranged from $1 billion to $6 billion). The competition for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility included some of the top universities and research institutes in the nation. The University of Kentucky joined with the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and other partners in pitching Kentucky as a site for the lab. Scientists at the $450 million, 500,000-square-foot facility would study potential biological threats to the U.S. food supply and humans, including foreign animal illnesses such as foot-and-mouth disease and diseases that can be passed from animals to humans. One goal would be development of better testing and vaccines.
Initially two dozen groups put forth proposals to build the lab at 29 different sites. Last August Federal officials cut that list to 18 sites in 11 states. Officials judged the proposals in several areas, including the research capabilities of the partners, proximity to research facilities, and the available work force. The Kentucky-Tennessee group hoped that it would be a plus to propose a site in a rural area, without existing structures to design around, but with good transportation access. The site was halfway between the universities in Lexington and Knoxville. Trouble is, federal assessors did not see it that way. DHS officials said they thought the research facilities in the proposal were too scattered, said Ewell Balltrip, head of the Kentucky-based National Institute for Hometown Security. “I think at the end of the day, DHS just didn’t accept our model,” he said.
DHS plans to choose the location of the proposed lab by late 2008 and have it in operation by 2014, replacing the aging Plum Island, New York, lab.
