Golden LEAF awards $260,000 grant to back effort to land bio-defense lab project

Research Triangle Park, N.C. — Supporters who want to land a $450 million bio- and agro-defense research facility for North Carolina have run into a buzz saw of public opposition, but now they have more than $260,000 to invest in a public relations and education effort.

Golden LEAF, a foundation focused on economic development in the state and the administrator of funds from the national tobacco settlement, on Tuesday awarded a consortium supporting the facility a $262,248 grant.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center sought the grant and will oversee the funds that will be directed to the N.C. Consortium for the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility.

“I believe this is a great economic opportunity for Granville County and the state,” said Ken Tindall, senior vice president for science and business development at the Biotech Center, which has advocated the project.

“This grant is about providing people with appropriate information,” he added. “It is not to sway public opinion. That is not our intent.”

The information campaign will be designed to deliver “something that is critical at this point – to provide the public with information and education and making sure that information that is out there is accurate and informed,” Tindall said.

For example, Tindall said that the lab would be used for biowarfare research “is just inaccurate.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which would oversee the facility, has two public hearings set for July 29 in Butner to discuss a recently released interim environmental impact study. The Granville site was reviewed along with sites in other states that have been declared as finalists by the federal government – Kansas, Texas, Georgia and Mississippi.

A decision about where to build the plant is expected later this year with construction beginning in 2009.

“While there are safety issues that need to be discussed, we need to be discussing accurate information about those issues,” Tindall said.

A variety of university and other organizations formed the consortium to support the facility. Granville County commissioners and the city council of Raleigh have opposed it.

The opposition stems from the fact that scientists would study diseases such as foot-and-mouth. Some residents said they worry about the potential risk associated with deadly organisms being in the community.

The government wants to replace an aging facility in Plum Island, N.Y.

Supporters said the $450 million lab would bring about 1,500 short-term construction jobs to the area and would eventually employ up to 500 people.