Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Residents wary of U. Missouri's lab plan
By Nate Beck
The Maneater (U. Missouri)
04/07/2006

(U-WIRE) COLUMBIA, Mo. — On March 23, eight days before the University of Missouri's proposal to house a government-run disease laboratory was due to the Department of Homeland Security, the university held its first public forum about the 500,000-square foot facility.

Several residents of the neighborhood adjacent to MU's South Farms, where university officials want to locate the laboratory, said they felt slighted by the late public hearing at which university officials acknowledged there was little that could be done to change the proposal before it was sent to the government.

The residents said they opposed the placement of the building so close to residences.

"There's a facility like the one they're going to build in New York called Plum Island," said Kim Heibel, a resident of Big Timber Drive, which is near the proposed site. "It's very secluded, and it's for a reason. They work with dangerous diseases. A place like the one on Plum Island being put right here could be hazardous for the people living by here, perhaps all of Columbia."

Joe Kornegay, the dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine, defended the proposal to house the laboratory, known as the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, on the South Farms property.

"We had to work fast, and we needed potential sites," Kornegay said. "With consultants trying to find a site and evaluating them, it takes time. The call was given by the Department of Homeland Security for people to submit sites for the facility in January, and they were due at the end of March. We're still in early process, and with more time, we'll be able to answer more questions and ease people's feelings."

Kornegay said MU sent a letter to residents of the neighborhoods surrounding South Farms to notify them of the proposal.

Several residents said they did not receive the letter.

The site MU proposed to the Department of Homeland Security for the laboratory is east of U.S. 63 and south of New Haven Road.

Researchers would use the laboratory — which would be built and operated by the government — to study diseases such as mad cow disease.

The proposal was submitted to the Department of Homeland Security at the end of March.

"The South Farms site is the best for collaboration with the facility and MU," Kornegay said. "It's important to have a site near Columbia where collaboration is available. I understand the views of the people who oppose it, but there has also been considerable support for economic purposes."

Other residents are upset about the use of the unspoiled farmland.

"We moved out here in '93 for space," said Terry Myhre, a resident of Big Timber Drive. "The reason we bought a house here is because they said they would not build anything that big around here or anything on MU land. I would rather not have something that big so close to my house."

For now, MU and people who live close by the proposed site are waiting for a response to the proposal from the Department of Homeland Security.

"If we are selected, we will then be in a group of three or four other sites in the country that the government is interested in," Kornegay said. "The Department of Homeland Security will go through a thorough environmental evaluation. There are still legitimate questions to be addressed and hopefully will be answered over time."

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