WASHINGTON — Problems have allegedly been found by Congressional investigators with the way the government studied the pluses and minuses of relocating its foot-and-mouth disease research laboratory to Kansas from an island off New York, according to The Associated Press.
In a draft report, the Government Accountability Office (G.A.O.) said the Homeland Security Department did not adequately study the different risks of six sites that competed to get the lab moved from its present site at Plum Island, N.Y.
Homeland Security used poor modeling techniques lacking good meteorological and other data to examine the spread of F.M.D. virus if accidentally released, G.A.O. charged. Also, it said the agency's economic analysis was inadequate. D.H.S. is working to relocate the lab to a more than $500 million facility in Manhattan, Kan.