Neighbors bugged by germ warfare lab.

Neighbors bugged by germ warfare lab

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 (SN: 2/14/87, p.100).

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suggesting the facility should be built on Johnston Atoll in the South Pacific, where the Army currently stores outdated chemical weapons.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. -- R. Weiss