SECTION_L,_Appendix_A_-_CTA_(20161212).docx

HSHQPD-17-R-00002

Appendix A – Background Information for the Conceptual Technical Approach (Building 257)

References BMT Entech (November 2010). After Action Report: Building 257 – Site Assessment in Support of Biological Decontamination Feasibility Study.

Phillips, Jonathan. Feasibility Study of Decontamination Alternatives for Building 257.

Background The Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) has served as the U.S. Government’s foreign animal disease research facility since its founding in 1954, at which time it was owned and operated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). During PIADC’s initial two years of operation, all scientific research activity involving foreign animal disease agents was conducted inside Building 257 (also referred to as B-257), a converted military coastal defense structure that was initially erected in 1911. The Building was converted by the U.S. Army Chemical Corp in 1950-52 and was subsequently transferred to USDA for use shortly after its completion. USDA discontinued diagnostic and research activities in this structure in late 1995, when it was mothballed and partially decontaminated. Since its official closure on February 2, 1996, the building and its limited contents have lain completely unused and undisturbed. B-257 had been prepared for full decontamination by the early spring of 1996, but extant protocols created for this action were never implemented. The status of the building, which officially remains in “biocontainment,” has not been altered or revised since that time.

Facility Characteristics B-257 was originally designed to be a mine and torpedo storage facility in 1911 by the United States Army. The building contained one torpedo storehouse and six cable tanks during its operational period. After World War II, the building (and all of the island facilities) were decommissioned and mothballed until 1950 when the U.S. Army Chemical Corp took possession of the Island and renovated many of the original structures. It was at that time that B-257 was re-configured from its prior weapons storage status into a biological research laboratory. The transfer for the USDA was completed in 1954 and was the sole research facility on the Island (a subsequent research facility known as Building 101 was constructed in 1954 and it continues to serve in a research capacity).

Building 257 and the larger PIADC installation were constructed on Plum Island in order to contain studied agents. Studies were conducted on foreign animal diseases including Foot and Mouth Disease, African Swine Fever, Rift Valley Fever, and Blue Tongue.

B-257 is a two storied, approximately 40,750 square foot (900,000 cubic foot) facility located on the southeastern shore of Plum Island. It is situated in a relatively remote location, some distance from the Harbor and the Building 101 laboratory, where nearly all of the current operational activities of the Center are conducted. The Building 100/101 complex is approximately 0.8 miles (linear measure) from B-257. The nearest occupied PIADC infrastructure to B-257 is Building W (warehouse) located at Plum Gut Harbor, approximately 0.6 miles to the west. The Island’s water treatment plant and a sewer system life station are the only other notable, typically unoccupied, PIADC infrastructure improvements within a half-mile of the former laboratory – both are north of B-257.

The interior of Building 257 is divided into approximately 160 individual rooms of varying sizes. Rooms on the first floor include laboratories, mechanical spaces, an incinerator room, employee locker/changing rooms, airlocks, autoclaves, a laundry, and a wastewater decontamination plant. Second floor rooms include laboratories, animal rooms, and a necropsy room. Service pipes, ventilation duct work, and wire conduits are located throughout the facility, and may not be entered or removed. Materials composing the building include, but are not limited to, asbestos (pipe insulation and floor tiles), concrete (floors), and a waterproof membrane (on certain floors). Originally 4-feet thick, the floor was built up 3 additional inches and made to slope towards the floor drains when the USDA was making additions to the building (on the west side; the original structure was 30,000 square feet). Other features added at that time include the biological decontamination plan, floor and wall sealants, airlocks and a negative pressure atmosphere within. Currently, there is no electrical, sanitary, telephone, or water service associated with the building.

The stand-alone wastewater treatment plant is housed in a structural addition situated on the west side of the original 1911-era building. The decontamination plant consists of four 10,000-gallon holding tanks, “retention tubes”, and a series of heat exchangers. The interiors of these holding tanks, when active, were reportedly steam cleaned on a weekly basis to prevent the accumulation of sludge. Wastewaters were either batch-treated in tanks or treated in heated retention tube systems to destroy “biologicals” in the wastewaters. Beginning in 1978, the pre-treated B-257 sewage was transferred to PIADC’s facility-wide wastewater treatment plant.

Due to the nature of the explosives once held there, this early 20th Century structure was heavily constructed to protect against blast damage associated with a potential accidental detonation of these stores. The walls within the original two-story structure are a foot or more thick around the perimeter of the structure and are constructed of poured, reinforced concrete. When the Army Chemical Corp refurbished the building in the 1950s, a second concrete block wall was constructed inside most of the shell of the original structure, adding an additional foot or more of wall thickness to the laboratory’s perimeter. Based on a review of building construction diagrams, there is double wall construction throughout the second floor of the original building and the northern half of the first floor. The mechanical areas located in the southern half of the first floor are not supplemented by the block material. Some of the additional thickness of the perimeter wall is attributed to an intentionally-designed annular space that separates the “old” and “new” structural walls. This annular space is reported to be several inches thick, giving portions of the structure a “building-within-a-building” physical description.

B-257 continued to serve as a research facility until 1995 when all USDA research and diagnostic activities were consolidated in Building 101. Shortly after research operations ceased in B-257, the process of decommissioning the laboratory began. Examples of the actions taken include the purging and cleaning of the building’s extensive sewage treatment system; the disinfection, flushing, and subsequent filling of floor drains with antifreeze solution; and the cleaning and “empty burning” of the lab’s incinerator. Surface washing of all horizontal surfaces was also conducted throughout the building to provide an initial disinfection “sweep” of the premises. Disinfectants used to conduct these surficial decontamination activities relied primarily on sodium and calcium hypochlorite solutions of varying concentrations. Steam and flushing with copious amounts of water were used as decontamination steps in some closed piping and tank systems.

Items such as furnishings, equipment and parts, tools, pipe fittings, chemical supplies remain in the building. Known materials are listed below and in order to provide efficacious decontamination, the fumigant must be effective on each surface, and the material must not react with the fumigant to form toxins.

The final step in the decommissioning process that was planned involved fumigation of all interior spaces within the building.

Decontamination Method In order to move this aging structure from its current secured biocontainment status to a free release state, after which it could conceivably be renovated for other uses or destroyed, Building 257 needs to be decontaminated. Decontamination is defined as sterilization and the ability of an agent to achieve a 6-log reduction in the number of viable organisms remaining after use. According to the U.S. Pharmacopeia’s USP-NF, a D value, or decimal reduction time, measures the time it takes to kill 90% or 1 log cycle of the initial organisms at a given temperature. A 6-log reduction means a six fold reduction in the number of organisms remaining. A 6-log reduction is considered effective, i.e. the number of organisms is 1,000,000 times smaller (USP <1121>, Sterilization and Sterility Assurance of Compendial Articles). For the purposes of this exercise, formaldehyde should be used as the gaseous decontamination method. There is a lack of utilities, namely sufficient electrical power. Electrical generators of appropriate size/capacity will need to be employed to support the operational needs of the various types of equipment that will likely be used to introduce sterilants, control air flow, and power support systems tied to the decontamination process. No utilities will be provided by the Government.

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