NCC NBAFNARR: The National Bio and Agro Defense Facility, or NBAF, is a proposed 520,000 square foot lab that will conduct research on the most dangerous biological threats facing both humans and animals. That means things like the Ebola virus and mad cow disease. The state's congressional delegation has sent a letter urging the Department of Homeland Security to choose North Carolina. Republican Senator Richard Burr thinks the state's chances for landing the facility are looking good.
BURR: ("I think North Carolina's got a tremendous site that could accommodate it. I think we've got the research capacity there to continue to feed its employment for the future. And I think that we've got an excellent opportunity to collaborate between that institution and the other research institutions at NC State, Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, and East Carolina.")
NARR: A coalition of state universities, research institutions, and agricultural groups are vying to bring the facility to just north of the Research Triangle. Warwick Arden is the dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University. He says the lab would boost the state's appeal to the bio-tech industry. And he's leading the effort to bring it to North Carolina.
ARDEN: ("This would really attract some of the leading animal and even some of the human infectious disease scientists to the region.")
NARR: But not everyone thinks bringing a high-security bio-lab to a place like North Carolina is such a good idea. Local opponents to proposed sites in Kentucky and Missouri say the lab would be a danger to surrounding communities. But Durham Democratic Congressman David Price says there's nothing to fear.
PRICE: ("There are all kinds of research going on around this country, including some in our own universities, that involve agents that if they were out and spread around the population would be dangerous, everybody knows that. This facility will deal with some particularly dangerous agents, but also with a particularly secure level of containment.")
NARR: Congressman Price chairs the congressional committee that has dedicated the funding for the project. He thinks it would add to North Carolina's already vibrant bio-tech industry.
PRICE: ("There'd be a synergy I think with other research efforts going on in the Triangle. We're a center of research, and we think this would be a good addition to that overall picture.")
NARR: But others argue that the $450 million dollar facility is simply a waste of taxpayer dollars. Edward Hammond is the director of the Sunshine Project, a watchdog group monitoring the bio-defense industry. He points out that about half a dozen high-security labs are already in construction.
HAMMOND: ("At no point did the federal government sit down and say, 'ok, how many of these do we need, and where? And lets try to do this rationally.'")
NARR: When the lab opens, researchers will actually be making deadly agents like anthrax. Hammond thinks that type of production could violate international agreements. He argues the U-S would not accept that type of behavior from other countries.
HAMMOND: ("The kinds of the things that we are doing in these facilities, if they were done by another country, for example Iran or China, the United States would probably consider it to be a hostile act. In other words, if what is planned to go on at NBAF happened in Tehran we very well might bomb them.")
NARR: But Warwick Arden disputes that. He says the lab will focus on defending against biological threats, and not on producing biological weapons.
ARDEN: ("Yes there may be the production or culture of bacteria or viruses in there that could in a different context be used as bio-weapons, but that is not at all the purview of this facility.")
NARR: For now no one knows where the Department of Homeland Security will choose to build the facility. In Congress, lawmakers are wrangling to make sure it ends up in their state -- there are currently 14 different groups across the country trying to land it. But the Department is expected to narrow down that list of prospective sites to just a handful of bidders sometime this month.
"For WFAE News, I'm Charles Davis on Capitol Hill."