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Anthrax decontamination of Brentwood facility under way

From Lindy Royce
CNN


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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A three-day fumigation process to decontaminate the Brentwood postal facility of anthrax spores began Saturday.

The facility has been closed since October of 2001, when workers there processed an anthrax-filled letter sent to Capitol Hill.

Officials said at the time they did not know the extent of the contamination, but soon afterward two Brentwood employees died from inhalation anthrax. The building was shut down and its 2,000 employees transferred to other facilities and given preventative antibiotic treatment.

Saturday afternoon, engineers began pumping in a mixture of five chemicals that combine to form chlorine dioxide. In order for the gas to work, the temperature inside the building must be 75 degrees and the humidity 75 percent. Postal officials said conditions were good Saturday.

If the gas leaks, it could be hazardous. The Environmental Protection Agency is monitoring the chemical levels in the air 24 hours a day until the process is complete.

EPA workers are driving around the surrounding area in what is called the TAGA, or Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer, to analyze the chemical levels in the air.

If a high enough level is detected, "We will stop the process, put it in reverse, scrub the building... and determine where the leak is occurring," said Tom Day, vice president of Postal Service Engineering.

Day added the level of detection that would trigger a pause in the process is much lower than normal safety standards for exposure.

The cost of this project will be high, postal officials acknowledged. It's being paid for through an appropriation given to the Postal Service from Congress.

Combined with the cleanup of a postal facility in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, "the cumulative costs right now are in excess of $100 million," Day said.

Fumigation of the Hart Senate Office Building cost $14 million, but Brentwood is considerably larger.

"This is 17.5 million cubic feet -- literally 170 times larger than the effort that took place at the Hart Senate Building," Day said.

"A question that has been asked repeatedly, 'Why not just knock down the building and start all over again?' The reality is, no matter what, we had to decontaminate this building. A building full of anthrax spores simply cannot just be taken down," Day said.

Officials will not know until mid-January if Saturday's fumigation worked.

The gas will be pumped out of the building on Monday and Tuesday. After the building has been de-humidified, teams will go in to gather a total of 12,000 spore strips. Those strips "will be cultured over the next 30 days to determine whether or not the process was successful," Day said.

Officials are hoping to have the Brentwood postal facility fully reoccupied and back in business by April of 2003.



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