- The U.S. Army will dump powdered egg whites, grain alcohol
and several other substances on the town of Goldsby as part of a mock bioterrorism
attack, state officials confirmed Thursday.
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- The Homeland Security Chemical/Biological Umbrella will
be conducted by the Army and the Environmental Protection Agency.
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- Residents of Goldsby, a town of about 800 in northern
McClain County, started receiving letters explaining the procedure this
week, state Environmental Quality Department spokeswoman Monty Elder said.
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- The letter says the Army will conduct tests over "rural
areas southwest of Oklahoma City."
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- The letter says airplanes will release "small amounts
of harmless materials" over the area. The materials are intended to
mock chemical or biological agents and test the ability of weather radar
to detect them.
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- The materials also include powdered clay, polyethylene
glycol and an inactive pest control called Bacillus thuringiensis.
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- "These materials were selected because they are
harmless to humans and the environment and because their physical properties
allow radar to 'see' them just like materials that might be used in a terrorist
attack," according to the letter.
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- The Oklahoma City area was chosen because of its sophisticated
weather radar networks, according to the letter.
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- A similar test was conducted in April near Key West,
Fla.
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- Employees at Goldsby businesses said they view the test
as a positive.
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- "It's kind of exciting for the area," said
Marcum's Nursery employee Deanna Bevel, who received a letter showing a
map of the area where material would be dropped. "If they use what
they say they're going to use, there's no problem with it."
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- Libby Adkins, owner of Libby's Kitchen, joked that townspeople
could use some excitement.
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- "It wouldn't bother me," Adkins said.
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- The tests will be conducted Feb. 24 to March 7 and April
21 to May 7 and will involve an airplane dropping material along a half-mile
path from about 1,000 feet above the ground.
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- The dropped material should not show up at ground level,
according to the letter, but EPA officials will be on site as monitors.
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- McClain County Sheriff Don Hewett said he had not seen
the letter and is worried people might be unaware of the test.
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- "I guarantee you, we're going to get 500 phone calls,"
he said. "And they should be calling about something like that."
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- Hewett said the airplanes will take off and land at Goldsby
Airport.
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- The Army and the EPA have scheduled open houses from
1 to 4 p.m. Feb. 14 and 15 for the public to learn about the project. The
events are at Norman's Max Westheimer Airport.
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- http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=983399&pic=none&TP=getarticle
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