Presented an opportunity this week, Person commissioners passed.

Commissioners listened politely Monday as Frances Blalock, co-chair of the grassroots Person County PRIDE, urged commissioners to adopt a prepared resolution in opposition to the NBAF, which Blalock read aloud during the county board’s regular August meeting. They did likewise as two other opponents voiced concerns  about the proposed laboratory which would study large animal diseases, some of which can be passed to humans and for which there are no known cures.

But commissioners, if not dismissive of the presentations, at least were noncommittal, inasmuch as they asked no questions of the speakers about the NBAF, nor did they engage in any discussion of the issue. Instead, after the NBAF opponents finished speaking, commissioners seemed content with Chairman Johnny Myrl Lunsford’s assurances to the speakers that Person commissioners would “take it under advisement.”

The Umstead Research Farm near Butner is one of five potential sites for the NBAF under consideration by the federal Department of Homeland Security. Others are in Athens, Ga., Texas, Mississippi and Kansas.

Roxboro, which is less than 30 miles from the Butner site, and Person County are within “the high impact zone should an accident occur” at a facility there, Blalock told commissioners in her presentation.

Blalock intimated that dangerous pathogens potentially could be released from the facility as a result of human error or even intent.

“No one is completely safe because we  can’t put absolute trust in people,” Blalock said, adding that she was hopeful Person commissioners would join in opposition to the NBAF.

The draft resolution she presented for the county’s consideration states, in part, that the NBAF “would result in the importation, infection of test animals and study of foreign animal diseases, including Foot and Mouth Disease, Rift Valley Fever, Nipah and Hendra Viruses, and Japanese Encephalitis, which can be carried off site in storm water, inadequately treated wastewater or in aerosols.”

It also maintains that “for several of these diseases there is no effective treatment and the only possible means of control is quarantine and even slaughter of all animals that may have been exposed.”

Further, it states, “in addition to the homes and farms within 10 miles of the site in Person, Granville and Durham Counties, there are within 1.5 miles of the site more than 7,000 residents without the ability to flee from exposure after a possible release, including mental health patients, surgical patients and federal prisoners, as well as more than 6,000 Butner residents, with over 800 public school and daycare attendees.”

If Person commissioners were to adopt the resolution as proposed, they would declare, according to the language in the document, that “the Person County Board of Commissioners, for and on behalf of the citizens of Person County, … is opposed to the siting of the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility at the proposed site in Butner” and that it “expresses deep concern at the siting of this facility at any mainland site surrounding which conditions would be conducive to spread of dangerous animal and zoonotic diseases.” A zoonotic disease is one that can pass from animals to humans.

The proposed new NBAF could replace a similar facility now in operation at Plum Island, N.Y. off the New York coast, although the DHS has indicated Plum Island also is under consideration.

Jim Senter of Potluck Farm Road at Rougemont suggested that’s where the facility should stay because the water between Plum Island and the mainland is another measure of security. Speaking during the public comment period at Monday’s meeting, before Blalock’s resolution presentation, Senter said he appeared on behalf of himself and his partners in livestock production. He said he had learned that the Plum Island facility has had nine accidental releases of foot and mouth disease over the last 20 years.

“If the lab is sited in Butner, when such an accident occurs again, we may be able to contain the outbreak and prevent a national catastrophe. But one thing we know for sure is that I would have to put down my flock of dairy goats. I live 7.5 miles from the site of this proposed facility. So moving this thing to the mainland is extremely dangerous,” Senter said.

He also told commissioners, “If we as a nation need this bio lab, we should keep it on Plum Island where the proven effective and necessary water barrier will provide an extra layer of security of the agricultural industry of this nation. So I would encourage you to vote for the resolution” opposing the NBAF.

Following Blalock’s presentation, NBAF opponent David Krabbe similarly urged Person commissioners to join the opposition.

“It’s just absurd to put our agriculture at risk,” said Krabbe, noting that agriculture represents 21 percent of North Carolina’s economy, or about $65 billion annually.

Krabbe challenged the economic benefits to North Carolina that he said NBAF proponents, such as a consortium supported by N.C. State University and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, are touting. He said the N. C. Department of Commerce has indicated the facility would represent a $1.65 billion boost to the state’s economy over 20 years.

Krabbe asserted that proponents had “inflated the labor, the number of jobs for North Carolinians” likely at the facility.

“They started with 400 and then added another 332 jobs. If you look at the draft environmental impact statement there’s actually 323 jobs with another 132 … that will be support businesses in support of this facility.

One thing they will not tell you is, there are only 63 jobs for North Carolinians; all the other people come in from out of state. Those in-migrant workers actually cost the citizens of North Carolina money to come here and work. So the economic benefits have been grossly inflated,” Krabbe said.

Like Blalock, Krabbe observed, “You can build the most sophisticated facility in the world; it still will not prevent human error.”

He added, “There just appears to be nothing good about this for North Carolina. We have the second largest hog population in the United States. It’s estimated that if foot and mouth disease gets out of this lab, it could wipe out the North Carolina hog population in as little as 36 hours.”

While Person commissioners made no commitment to oppose or support the bio lab, there were other developments this week.

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, a Democrat who represents North Carolina’s 13th District, which includes Person County and part of Granville County among others, came out against siting the NBAF at Butner.

In a prepared statement released Tuesday, Miller said, “I am today notifying the Department of Homeland Security that I do not support locating the National Bio Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) at the proposed Butner site. I have worked with other members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation to urge the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to work closely with elected officials and citizens in Granville County to address concerns about the proposed facility. The Government Accountability Office and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, among others, have raised sober, serious concerns about the facility that DHS has not satisfied. If democracy means anything, local elected officials speak for the people of their community, and local elected officials in Granville County now oppose bringing the facility to Butner. I cannot support bringing a federal facility to a community in my district that does not welcome it.

“I continue to believe that we must do the research that would be conducted at the proposed facility to protect public health and our food supply, whether at the current location at Plum Island or elsewhere, and that wherever the research is done it must be done safely.”

Elsewhere, Norris Tolson, chair of the N.C. Biotechnology Center, advised the Golden LEAF Foundation that the consortium would not accept a grant of more than $262,000 the foundation had recently awarded the group for use in developing an educational campaign about the proposed facility to counter what proponents termed misinformation by opponents. Tolson indicated that strings the foundation had tied to the grant, precipitated the rejection. For example, the foundation wanted to see all campaign materials in advance of publication.

In a letter to Golden LEAF President Valerie Lee turning down acceptance of the grant, Tolson wrote, in part, “Taken as a whole, the proposed agreement vests Golden LEAF with such involvement and decision-making power over the details of the project that it ceases to be a grant supporting independent, objective work and analysis."

Also this week, the Raleigh City Council came out in opposition to the facility.