I did a search on this and hadn't seen anything show up. If it is a duplicate, please let me know.
Update: Sorry, my local rag of a paper said it was awarded. The linked story only shows Flora as being on the shortlist. Even so, the rest of the concerns are still valid.
A new national biological lab is being built in a Flora, Mississippi, a small town of only 1500 people. This has caused a great deal of concern, as the town was among the lowest ranked among the 17 applicants.
The Homeland Security Department swept aside evaluations by government experts and named Mississippi -- home to powerful U.S. lawmakers with sway over the agency -- as one of five finalists for a new $451 million laboratory to study biological threats, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Among the other cities that bid and had higher rankings were Granville County, NC, within about half an hour of Duke University, UNC and Wake Forest, Athens, GA, home of the University of Georgia, Manhattan, KS, home of Kansas State University, Madison, WI, home of University of Wisconsin and San Antonio, TX, one of the largest cities in the US.
As with just about everything with this government, there is certainly a political element, as several high ranking members in Congress hail from Mississippi:
Mississippi's lawmakers include the Democratic chairman of the department's oversight committee in the House and the senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is expected to approve money to build the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility at one of five sites being considered. The two lawmakers said they were unaware that a Homeland Security evaluation system gave the Mississippi site a low score.
Even so, there appears to be more going on than just political influence. After all, many of the other cities and states bidding have influential lawmakers. And this really does appear to be a decision that demonstrates incompetence or ignorance of basic procedures. Again, with this administration, SOP.
First there is the matter of security. A number of communities were opposed to the lab being built in their backyard. This is understandable. Nobody really wants a bioweapons research lab in their community. But if larger cities like Raleigh, NC are opposed
The City of Raleigh has expressed concern that the lab could pollute the city's water supply. This year, the board of commissioners in Granville County, where the lab would go, withdrew support for the project.
the same consideration should be made of even smaller towns like Flora. Consider that Flora has a population of 1500, it probably has a police force of under 10, a fire department of about the same size, if it doesn't use the county, and likely has to use a hospital in Canton, or possibly even Jackson, nearly 20 miles away. Even a minor accident could turn become critical due to this distance and the time needed to get patients to the hospital.
Then there is the fact that this will be a target for terrorists. The first line of defense is a police force that more than likely deals with burglaries, domestic disputes and shoplifting. In the end, this will mean the US government has to bring in a significant security force, almost certainly military, or private military contractors, like Blackwater. Think about how the town will cope with just about everyone being under suspicion from outside security forces.
For this reason alone, I would argue the best place for this type of lab is on an isolated military base, where access can be strictly controlled, and accidents contained quickly.
Next there is the matter of attracting researchers to Flora. It's not exactly a big city, so there really is not a lot to attract anyone to it. It's is 20 miles from Jackson, MS, which itself has only about 180,000 people, and while it does have several universities, none are considered cutting edge or in the top tier. This will make it difficult to attract the creative class that is really necessary to do the type of research that needs to be done. And Mississippi has a reputation for not exactly attracting high level scientists and doctors in the first place, a reputation that I believe it has earned.
And this comment brings home the nature of this decision:
Stephen Schimpff, who led unsuccessful efforts to bring the lab to Beltsville, Md., complained that the government's analysis seemed confusing. The department said there were too many skilled researchers near Beltsville, just outside Washington, and the agency worried about competing to hire them.
"We were surprised when some of the things we felt were our strengths were turned back on us as weaknesses," Schimpff said.
That to me makes no sense. If you have a surplus of researchers, that would seem to be a good thing. Overall, this is a situation that bears watching.