Jackson Free Press

The Department of Homeland Security selected Manhattan, Kansas, over Flora, Miss., and four other sites for its proposed $451 million Bio and Agro-Defense Facility. The lab, which will focus primarily on communicative animal diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease, often called simply FMD, will replace an outdated 1950s lab currently located on Plum Island, off the coast of New York.

DHS based their final decision on the proximity of the Kansas location to Kansas State University's veterinary and agriculture schools. "Proximity to research—that's probably what we emphasized the most," Jamie Johnson, director of national laboratories at the Department of Homeland Security told The Clarion-Ledger.

The closest Mississippi school that could assist the lab is two hours from the proposed Flora location.

The Jackson Free Press previously reported that the non-partisan Government Accountability Office warned Congress this past summer that the DHS had not determined the safety of moving the biolab inland, and that the agency had vastly underestimated the costs of an FMD outbreak.

"The total cash value for U.S. livestock in 2007 was $141.4 billion. The total export value of red meat in 2007 was $6.4 billion," the report states. "These values represent the upper bound of estimated losses" to the livestock industry, with additional indirect costs, including unemployment, "which could ripple through other sectors of the economy as well."

In a presentation made to Flora residents, the DHS estimated the total nationwide cost of an FMD outbreak at $2.8 to $4.2 billion.

The Mississippi Legislature approved an $88 million bond measure to make necessary infrastructure improvements to the site in the event the DHS selected the Flora site, including building or improving roads, water tanks and wells.

The proposed lab will add some 300 permanent jobs to Manhattan, Kansas, although the DHS will likely import most, if not all, of those highly skilled scientists from Plum Island, N.Y. In addition, construction of the new facility will employ about 1,500 construction workers.

Gov. Haley Barbour and Texas Gov. Rick Perry may consider challenging the Kansas selection. A site near San Antonio was No. 2 on the final list, with Flora coming in third.