'Not in our backyard,' activists tell Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: SECURITY BEAT: Homeland Defense Briefs

A group of local activists are opposing Lawrence Livermore Laboratory's attempts to win a bid on a Department of Homeland Security bio-defense facility.

Tri-Valley CARES, based in Livermore, Calif., has circulated an on-line petition addressed to Secretary Michael Chertoff opposing the University of California's proposal to operate the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility. UC operates the national laboratory for the Department of Energy.

An accidental release of biological agents, potentially caused by a massive earthquake, would be devastating to the nearby community of Tracy, Calif., and the nearby agricultural industry, it said. The grouping of the proposed facility in a complex that also develops nuclear weapons may be misinterpreted, Tri-Valley CARES said.

"Other countries may perceive this as a move towards developing offensive U.S. biological weapons capabilities and respond by developing their own," the group said in the letter.

The organization, however, may be fueling that misconception. It regularly calls the facility a "biological warfare agent research facility" in its statements.

Not so, said the lab's spokesman, Steve Wampler.

It is intended to enhance and protect the nation's ability to counteract animal-to-human diseases such as anthrax and mad cow disease...