- SANTA FE, N.M. (Reuters)
- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has bought for about $5 million
the small New Mexico ghost town of Playas, and plans to transform it into
a terrorist response training center, officials said on Friday.
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- Training at the 1,840-acre town about 40 miles north
of the Mexican border, could provide training for U.S. Marines in urban
warfare and a first responders program that includes testing responses
to various terrorist bombing possibilities, they said.
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- The facility could also be used to look at ways in which
biological and chemical warfare may affect a small town, said an official
responsible for running the training center.
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- New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, an undergraduate
and graduate school specializing in science and engineering, will run the
training center, which was purchased for "close to $5 million dollars"
from Phelps Dodge, said Lonnie Marquez, acting vice-president of administration
and finance at New Mexico Tech.
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- "We've been pursuing this since the town was first
made available so we're pretty excited," he said. "Our programs
will be in support of Homeland Security."
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- Playas was built in the early 1970s to house the employees
and infrastructure of the Phelps Dodge copper smelter, which shut down
in 1999 leaving a virtual ghost town. About 40 families still live in the
town, but may have to move once the federal government finalizes the purchase,
Marquez said.
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