[NukeNet] LIVERMORE LAB REJECTED FOR BIO-WAR AGENT RESEARCH/Press Release

[Marylia Kelley]

For more information:
Marylia Kelley, Executive Director, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148
Loulena Miles, Staff Attorney, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148
Bob Sarvey, Business Owner and opposition leader in Tracy, (209) 835-7162

For immediate release July 11, 2007

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COMMUNITIES DEFEAT BIO-WARFARE AGENT RESEARCH PROPOSAL
AT LIVERMORE LAB SITE 300

Activists and Business Owners Rejoice as Dept. of Homeland Security Rejects
Livermore Lab Application for National Bio and Agro Defense Facility
(NBAF); Claim Public Opposition Tipped the Scales

TRACY - Following a year of community outreach, meetings with elected
officials, neighborhood "house parties", door to door petitioning, Tracy
City Council action, and other escalating opposition, the Dept. of Homeland
Security (DHS) apparently got the message. There is no "community
acceptance" for a bio-warfare agent research facility in Northern
California.

Today, elected officials leaked the names of the 5 finalist locations for
the Dept. of Homeland Security's National Bio and Agro Defense Facility, or
NBAF. Livermore Lab's Site 300 is NOT on the list, despite heavy lobbying
by the Lab and the University of California, which manages Livermore Lab
and submitted its NBAF application.

The NBAF will be one of the largest and most dangerous biodefense
facilities in the world. Reportedly, the "finalist" contenders to house
NBAF are located in Texas, Georgia, Kansas, North Carolina and Mississippi.

Local grassroots organizing carried the day in eliminating Livermore Lab's
Site 300 high explosives testing range from consideration. Tri-Valley
CAREs, a watchdog group that monitors Livermore Lab, and its allies
generated more than 7,000 calls and letters to the Department of Homeland
Security opposing a bio-warfare agent research facility at Site 300.

The group collected more than 2,000 paper petitions against the
bio-facility, many of them distributed from neighbor to neighbor and
through Bob Sarvey's shoe store in Tracy. In addition, the group's members
wrote numerous letters to the editor and spoke out at Tracy City Council
and other key meetings.

On Tri-Valley CAREs' behalf, Working Assets Long Distance asked its local
customers if they would be willing to pay a small fee to send a letter-gram
telling DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to stop the bio-lab from locating at
Site 300 -- and more than 3,000 did so. Hundreds more made phone calls.

A colleague organization, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, sponsored an
Internet forum that enabled nearly 2,000 people to send their email
messages opposing the facility to DHS.

And, following advocacy from community members, the Tracy City Council,
Site 300's closest neighbor, voted in January 2007 to oppose the bio-lab.
The City of Tracy then sent a letter to DHS announcing its opposition.

According to Marylia Kelley, Executive Director of Tri-Valley CAREs, "The
community opposition was impressive. So many bright lights came out to
oppose this dangerous bio-warfare agent research proposal. I believe it was
public outcry that caused Homeland Security to eliminate Site 300 from
consideration."

Kelley continued,  "I am ecstatic that we were able to achieve this victory
and I salute all the community members who spoke out."

The proposed NBAF will cover 520,000 square feet, roughly the size of 5
Wal-Mart stores. It will house the most lethal pathogens on Earth, with
both BSL-3 and BSL-4 capacity.

Biosafety Level-3 facilities experiment on infectious or exotic pathogens
that are potentially lethal, such as live anthrax, plague and Q fever.
Biosafety Level-4s are reserved for extremely exotic biological agents for
which there is no known cure, such as Central European tick-borne
encephalitis. The biological research at NBAF will spread across a minimum
of 30 acres to test on large animals, according to the DHS request for
proposals in the federal register.

Local businessman and resident Bob Sarvey said today, "I am glad that we in
Tracy will not be subjected to both increased bomb testing at Site 300 and
live anthrax, plague, bird flu and other pathogens. I am celebrating this
victory while continuing opposition to further bomb testing with depleted
uranium at the site. The end goal is to obtain cleanup of existing
contamination and safe research at Site 300."

Moreover, building this research lab at Site 300 would have meant
collocating bio-warfare agent research with nuclear weapons, sending the
wrong signal to the rest of the world. "Building this facility at Site 300
would have weakened the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)," stated
Loulena Miles, the staff attorney at Tri-Valley CAREs. "Today, there exists
a bright line, with no country locating its advanced biological warfare
research in classified nuclear weapons facilities. I am particularly joyful
that the rejection of Site 300 by DHS preserves this clear and important
distinction."

Miles elaborated, "If the line is ever breached, collocating 'bugs and
bombs' will raise suspicions worldwide about the intent of the U.S.
biodefense program. This will have a corrosive effect on universal
acceptance of the BWC." The Biological Weapons Convention is the
international treaty to prevent the spread of bioweapons.

Additionally, the NBAF is part of what many community groups are calling an
unnecessary and dangerous "biodefense building boom."

Tri-Valley CAREs and its allies have asked Congress and the Bush
Administration for a national "needs assessment" to be undertaken. This
logical first step would provide the government and the public with an
accurate picture of what biodefense capabilities presently exist in the
United States, and what if any additional capability is needed.

Stated Kelley, "It is shocking that no such overarching assessment exists
and that each federal agency is moving forward willy-nilly with its own
proposals for more labs."

This means that other communities will be saddled with a potentially
unnecessary NBAF and unjustified hazards. "We remain vigilant and plan to
stand with communities across this country to oppose the proliferation of
these exceedingly dangerous labs." said Miles.

Homeland Security will make the final site selection for NBAF by October
2008. The Environmental Impact Statement process, pursuant to the National
Environmental Policy Act, is now slated to begin immediately.


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Marylia Kelley,
Executive Director

Tri-Valley CAREs
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA  94551

Ph: (925) 443-7148
Fx: (925) 443-0177
Web: www.trivalleycares.org
Email: marylia at trivalleycares.org or marylia at earthlink.net