http://www.greatbasinweb.com/gb2-2/westdesertstories.htmAt the Dugway Proving Ground, Army and CIA personnel tested aerial and ground dispersions of nerve agent, dangerous viruses, the microbes that cause anthrax and the plague, as well as the hallucinogens LSD and BZ. A nerve gas accident in 1968 killed 6,000 sheep. By some estimates one-third of Dugway’s 1,000 square miles is con-taminated and will be off limits forever.
To the southeast, in Rush Valley, I see rows and rows of concrete bunkers, like little houses in suburbia. That’s the Tooele Army Depot, where chemical nerve agents are stored, enough to kill every living thing on the planet. You get just a tiny bit of this stuff on your skin or in your lungs and pretty soon you notice some difficulty breathing, then you begin to slobber and drool, then you urinate, defecate, and fall down on the floor and writhe about in convulsions until you go into a coma and die. The Army is now building an incinerator to destroy this poison, and it’s none too soon either, as the containers inside the bunkers have started to leak. Habitual dumping of hazardous solvents has polluted a large aquifer.
Beyond Tooele to the east, lies the Kennecott Copper smelter, Kennecott has also polluted an aquifer, one that could have supplied water to 50,000 people a year.
To the north, I see Magcorp, a magnesium plant spewing a long plume of chlorine gas into the air, and to the northwest, the West Desert Hazardous Industries Area, a special 100 square mile plot of land set aside for incinerators and landfills.
At the Dugway Proving Ground, the tests are now done indoors under very anxious safety regulations. I talk with Dr. Gary Resnick of Dugway’s Baker Lab inside the level three containment room
“This is where we do our aerosol work,” he explains. “This is a class three glove box. Remember that there are three types of safety cabinets. This is the highest level, and you can see there are glove ports, it’s totally sealed when it is in operation, and they test it with freon to make sure there are no leaks. So we have three layers of containment:the room is a layer of containment, the chamber is a layer of containment, and then the aerosol itself is actually inside that aerosol system inside the glove box.”
“What kinds of aerosols do you test? Could you run through them?” I ask.
“Yersinea Pestus, attenuated strain; coxilli burnetti, which causes Q fever; bacillius subtelus variety niger, which is a simulant; ms two coloflage which is a simulant, it doesn’t cause disease; botulinum toxin, which causes botulism; staphlococcus enterotoxin B, which causes the food poisoning that’s common from eating potato salad that’s been left at room temperature. I think I got them all.”
“Yellow fever?”
“No, I don’t believe so.”
“Is there cholera here?”
“How do you mean here? Do we have samples of cholera in the building?”
“Yes.”
“That’s correct.”
“ Well, how about anthrax?”
“Bacillus anthracis?”
“Yes.”
“It’s an organism that causes a serious illness, and there is treatment, there is a vaccine for it which appears to be very effective, and there is treatment for anthrax. Once again we use attenuated strains when we can. And we actually have a very good simulant for anthrax. So we don’t use anthrax all that often.”
“So there is treatment for anthrax?”
“Uh-humm.”
“So what you are saying is that it’s safe, and the public shouldn’t worry.”
http://www.hazardouswaste.utah.gov/HWBranch/CDSection/CDS/DPG/Dugway%20Part%20B%20Permit/DPG%20Module%207%20files/DPG7_Attach1.pdfDugway aims to revive Cold War lab
http://www.citizensedproject.org/newbakerlab.pdfTOOELE - A relic Cold War building, where Army scientists once secretly studied the effects of biochemical weapons, would be renovated and reopened under a proposal by officials from Dugway Proving Grounds. Under the proposal, the controversial Baker Lab would be rebuilt with asmany as 25 new biological testing areas, including one that would be the largest of its kind for testing the effects of so-called Level-3 biological agents, such as an aerosol form of anthrax, on detection systems. Dugway officials say post-Sept. 11, 2001, demands for testing ofprotective equipment and warning systems simply can't be met in their current lab space. "We really don't have enough adequate lab space to do what we're doing,"said Doug Anderson, chief of the aerosol technology branch at Dugway's West Desert Test Center. But critics say they've heard this story before. "They're certainly continuing a pattern that causes arched eyebrows,"said Steve Erickson, whose Citizen's Education Project has been a longtime watchdog over Dugway's activities. Erickson noted that public outcry over a proposal to open a Level-4 lab, designed to test the effects of evenmore dangerous pathogens than those currently acknowledged as being tested at Dugway, was thwarted in the late 1980s when the plan came to public light. But just a few years later - "under the cover of the first Gulf War," Erickson said - the Army succeeded in constructing a new Level-3 lab, the Life Sciences Test Facility. Finished in 1997, the lab was intended to replace Baker. "Now they're saying they need even more space? That they need to reopen a lab they just closed? I'm not
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http://www.sltrib.com/ci_5493105A star is born - at WSUStadium opponents a third of the way to signature goalSandy to hold RSL parking meeting tonightRocky, Hannity find a sparring dateMan who lost arm in Utah to lobby for land protectionShoshone historian set the record straightGuard unit may face first combatRiver foam mystery may be solved todayGarcia says he won't seek mayor's positionDugway aims to revive Cold War labDraper hires city managerDad sues LDS over religious ordinanceWater restored to neighborhoodTeen held in girl's throat slashingArrest made in child porn caseFarmer hurt in attack by cowsResident crush delays Wal-Mart decisionBacterial illness linked to raw milkUtahn had a role in firingsFor the RecordComing in the TribuneLottery NumbersCorrectionsnecessarily impugning their motives here, but when this is all so cloaked in secrecy, historically and actually quite recently, that's what causes fear, uncertainty and doubt," Erickson said. Test center Commander Douglas Tamilio stressed that the new Baker Lab would, from the inside, bear littleresemblance to the lab that was shut down in 1998. "The only thing left would be the concrete walls and the roof," Tamilio said. He said the rebuilt facility would be devoted only to the testing of protective equipment and detection systemsthat are too large to be tested in any of the Army's current labs spaces. Still, Tamilio said, he understands the critics' concerns. And at two recent public meetings he pledged "toanswer all of the questions we are asked." One question he might have difficulty answering, however, is what message an expanded testing facility might send to U.S. adversaries. International law has prohibited "offensive" testing of biologicalweapons for three decades. But Edward Hammond, director of the biodefense watchdog Sunshine Project, said that the potential to derive "dual use" data from tests, such as those proposed at the expanded Baker Lab, endangers the precarious balance of international trust. "Any major expansion of a laboratory that is so secretive is onethat will raise concerns, by definition," Hammond said. "Other countries that might feel the U.S. is a potential adversary - Iran or China, for instance - might look at this work and say, 'We've got to do it, too.' " mlaplante@sltrib.comOld Dugway lab may reopen * The Army is proposing to reopen an old lab at the Dugway Proving Grounds, leading critics to worry about a further expansion of research on biological weapons at the base already home to a top-level research facility. They also cite the potential for violations of international treaties prohibiting development of offensive weapons.Return to Top
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