The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. — Federal officials will be in Kansas next week evaluating whether locations in Manhattan or Leavenworth would work as future homes for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.
Seventeen locations in 11 states are vying for the $450 million high-security laboratory set up to look for and fight potential threats to animal, plant and human health.
Homeland security officials said Friday that reviewers would consider several factors in their decision, including whether there was already research in the area, that there was a large work force nearby, the local community supported the lab and whether local governments would share in the costs.
Members of Kansas’ Congressional delegation have made overtures on the sites’ behalf, but homeland security attorney Nicole Marcson said the decision will be based on facts, not politics.
“There’s no room for external political pressures in our review plan,” Marcson said.
The review team will visit the 178-acre Leavenworth site behind Fort Leavenworth on Wednesday. A visit to the Manhattan site on Kansas State University campus is scheduled for Thursday.
City officials in both locations are supporting each other’s plans.
Homeland security officials plan to conduct all of their site reviews by the end of the month and narrow the field to three to five sites by July.
Those finalists will undergo 16 months of environmental impact studies, with the Department of Homeland Security announcing the winner in October 2008 and beginning construction.
The lab, replacing an older facility in New York, is expected to open in 2014.
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Information from: Lawrence Journal-World, http://www.ljworld.com
