[NukeNet] Biowar Experiments HAVE BEGUN at Livermore Lab/Tri-Valley CAREs Outraged, Will File Litigation to Stop Them

[Marylia Kelley]

Read this for up to the minute news -- more as it develops...

for more information, contact:
Marylia Kelley, Executive Director, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148
Robert Schwartz, Staff Attorney, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148

for immediate release, January 29, 2008

Energy Dept. Opens Dangerous Bio-Warfare Research Facility at Livermore
Lab; Violates Own Federal Regulations and Law

Community Outraged at Risk from Accidents, Terrorist Attack;
Will File Litigation to Stop Experiments with Deadly Pathogens

LIVERMORE, CA -- Yesterday, ignoring public concerns and without the
required notification or circulation of its environmental analysis for
public review and comment, the Department of Energy (DOE) opened a
bio-warfare agent research facility at the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory. The new facility, housed in a prefabricated (i.e., portable)
building, has now begun dangerous experiments with lethal pathogens such as
live anthrax, plague, Q-fever, tularemia, and others.

This research includes genetic modification of deadly biological agents and
toxins as well as aerosol (spray) experiments on up to 100 small animals at
a time, according to DOE documents. The facility is rated a Bio-Safety
Level-3 (BSL-3). The ratings, done by the Centers for Disease Control, go
from 1 - 4, with the highest level reserved for the rarest diseases for
which there is no known cure, such as Ebola. A BSL-3 designation allows
scores of potentially deadly pathogens in and out of Livermore Lab,
including "select agents," the name given to pathogens historically
associated with bio-warfare activities.

"The DOE and Livermore Lab are jeopardizing the health and safety of the
local community and the surrounding Bay Area," charged Marylia Kelley, the
Executive Director of Tri-Valley CAREs and a neighbor of Livermore Lab.
Analysis has shown that live anthrax released to the air due to "light
damage" to the BSL-3 could result in up to 9.000 deaths, depending on wind
patterns.

According to Tri-Valley CAREs' Staff Attorney, Robert Schwartz, "We are
deeply frustrated by DOE's continuing refusal to analyze the risks, hold
public hearings, or comply with federal regulations and our nation's most
fundamental environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act. Once
again, it is up to us to bring legal action to stop the facility, and we
are preparing to do so."

Tri-Valley CAREs, individual Livermore residents and others initially filed
a lawsuit in 2003 challenging the adequacy of the environmental analysis
that DOE prepared for the Livermore Lab BSL-3.  In 2006, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered the DOE to consider whether the
threat of terrorist activity necessitates the preparation of a high-level
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the facility.  Instead of
conducting a detailed study of the terrorist threat, DOE chose to downplay
the very real risks to the community and the environment and issue a
Finding of No Significant Environmental Impact (FONSI) for the bio-warfare
agent research.

"By issuing the FONSI without a public review and comment period, DOE
violated its own regulations," explained Schwartz. Under those regulations,
DOE must issue a proposed FONSI for public review and comment in certain
situations, including where the nature of the proposed action is one
without precedent.

"The BSL-3 facility at Livermore Lab is without precedent because DOE had
previously never operated any microbiological laboratories above Biosafety
Level 2," Schwartz continued.

Further, and contrary to the process DOE has chosen for its first-ever
BSL-3, another, similar, facility proposed for the Los Alamos National
Laboratory in New Mexico is currently in the process of undergoing the
highest level of environmental analysis, an EIS. This will ensure a more
robust environmental review and public hearings for the people of New
Mexico.

"We in California deserve no less," insisted Kelley. "This situation is an
outrage. There are 7 million people living within a 50-mile radius of
Livermore Lab. We are not disposable people, and we will not allow DOE to
ignore our safety."

Tri-Valley CAREs continues to maintain that a facility of this nature,
which will handle deadly pathogens in an urban environment, requires the
preparation of a full EIS.  This concern was at the heart of the 2003
lawsuit.  However, DOE has stubbornly refused to prepare an EIS in its
haste to open the facility.

According to Kelley, the DOE is deliberately using "environmental blinders"
in order to open the BSL-3. The lower-level Environmental Assessment (EA)
the Department instead prepared is a poor substitute for the thorough
analysis that would be contained in an EIS.  Moreover, the EA omits
significant information, including a thorough discussion of a September
2005 anthrax release caused by Livermore Lab that resulted in a $450,000
fine and the possible exposure of at least two individuals.

"Tri-Valley CAREs intends to pursue legal action against DOE," maintained
Schwartz. "In addition to violating its own regulations, DOE has also run
afoul of the National Environmental Policy Act.  In particular, the
terrorist threat analysis ordered by the Ninth Circuit is inadequate and
unsupported," Schwartz continued. "Contrary to DOE's assertions, it is
evident that the Department did not take a 'hard look' at the environmental
consequences of the BSL-3 facility."

In addition to deadly impacts in surrounding communities, the Livermore Lab
bio-warfare agent research facility has global implications and may fray
the already fragile international treaty banning bio-weapons.

Staff Attorney Schwartz pointed out that he recently returned from the
Meeting of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in
Geneva, where he discussed with diplomats from treaty's signatory nations,
including the United States, the potential problems posed by "mixing bugs
and bombs" and a highly-classified nuclear weapons laboratory like
Livermore. "If the research that is now begun at Livermore Lab moves
forward, it has the potential to weaken the BWC. I am concerned,
especially, that negotiations toward stringent, needed verification and
enforcement protocols to the BWC will suffer because of DOE's capricious
action," Schwartz concluded.

-- 30 --

For more information on the Livermore Lab bio-warfare research facility's
health and environmental risks, and the organization's pending legal action
to stop it, contact Tri-Valley CAREs at (925) 443-7148.

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