Consultant: Congress says Plum Island must be sold

Long Islanders got a chance Thursday night to talk about what they would like to see happen at Plum Island if the Department of Homeland Security moves its Animal Disease Center to Kansas. But the property's fate remained unclear.

One speaker, Randall Parsons of the Nature Conservancy, suggested it not be sold at all. He pointed out that the federal government has spent millions of dollars to preserve the Peconic Estuary. "If we didn't already own it [Plum Island], we would likely try to acquire it," he said.

At the end of its review process, possibly before year's end, the federal General Services Administration will decide whether Plum Island should be put up for sale or kept by the federal government.

However, Josh Jenkins, a consultant to the GSA on the Plum Island property, told the hearing, at Greenport High School, that Congress had already declared the property must be sold. While a "no action option" was being studied, it could not be adopted by the GSA. More than 100 people attended the hearing.

The federal research center has been studying diseases such as foot and mouth, a highly contagious animal disease, on Plum Island since 1954, when Congress declared such research should not take place on the U.S. mainland for safety reasons.

But in recent years federal officials decided to upgrade the center's biosafety Level 3 laboratory to Level 4, so even more dangerous pathogens can be researched.

After a nationwide review, it was decided to place the lab at the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan, Kan., and to close Plum Island to save money.

Congress has approved planning funds for the new research center, but has not allocated any money for construction. The new facility is to open by the end of 2014, and Plum Island would close a year later.

Thursday night, Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) sent a statement to officials holding the hearing, cautioning that the new facility may never be built.

"Before we cross a point of no return, I want everyone to open their eyes and look at what we're doing here. We have not begun decommissioning Plum Island, we have not laid a single brick or appropriated a single dollar to construct NBAF [National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility, the new research center].

"Rather than pour hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars down a sinkhole in Kansas and open the Pandora's box of decommissioning Plum Island, we should abandon NBAF and make use of existing facilities."

Much of the research done at Plum Island has been cloaked in secrecy, prompting rumor about the kind of work undertaken there. The facility studies diseases that cannot be transferred to humans. The proposed Biosafety Level 4 lab, however, would study viruses such as Ebola and anthrax, potentially fatal to humans.

The 840-acre Plum Island was purchased by the federal government during the Spanish-American War. Fort Terry was built there, deactivated and later reactivated for the use of the Army Chemical Corps in World War II. In 1954, the Army gave the property to the Department of Agriculture, which in turn transferred its center to the Department of Homeland Security in 2002.

What happens to Plum Island?

THE REPLACEMENT: The federal General Services Administration, working with the Department of Homeland Security, is following a schedule toward the closure and sale of Plum Island.

Before the Plum Island Animal Disease Center is closed, a new facility to do the research work must be built in Manhattan, Kansas. But with funding uncertain, the timetable's not finalized.

THE TIMETABLE: Various federal officials have said they want the new facility operational by 2014 with Plum Island closed a year later.

Two public hearings, on Wednesday in Connecticut and Thursday night in Greenport, are an early step in the GSA's closure process. The GSA will issue a report in summer on the anticipated impact of the closure, with a 45-day comment period to follow.

REMAINING ISSUES:

Whether cattle disease research should actually be done on the mainland. An accidental outbreak on Plum Island would have a $31-million economic impact, while the same outbreak in Kansas would have a $1-billion impact, according to a 2009 Government Accountability Office report.

How much the government would get from the sale of Plum Island: The proposed new facility would cost $650 million, and congressman Tim Bishop said that, with cleanup costs included, the sale of the 840-acre Plum Island might net only $50 to $80 million.

What the best and most realistic use of Plum Island would be: Several people in Connecticut on Wednesday suggested that the mostly-undeveloped island would make a wonderful bird sanctuary or habitat preserve.