Entire state would benefit

from national lab siting

Tuesday, May 22, 2007 3:49 PM CDT

Sigh. We hate to see missed opportunities and Wisconsin looks like it might miss out on a good one.

The state and the University of Wisconsin-Madison are making a pitch to have a high security national agro- and bio-defense lab just southeast of Madison, but the bid is being undercut by local opposition.

Town of Dunn residents are opposing the $450 million project out of safety concerns and worries that it won't fit in with the quiet and rural character of their town.

They've started a letter writing campaign, convinced the Dane County Board and town board to oppose it and even have an opposition sampler on the town's web site soliciting petitions and offering yard signs.

That's a shame since local support is one of the criteria which will be used to select the site for the National Bio and Agro Defense Lab � a successor to an old lab in New York.

Wisconsin seems to us a pretty good pairing for a first-rate lab that would focus on agricultural threats like animal diseases, bird flu, foot-and-mouth disease.

Yes, the jobs would be good, too and this facility is expected to generate about 300 of them � plus the construction job impact.

But that really pales against the benefits such a lab would bring to the state's agricultural industry since it would bring top flight researchers together here just outside Madison.

Not surprisingly, state agribusiness leaders support it. Bill Bruins, the head of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation told a reporter this week, "It is extremely important and in the best interest of Wisconsin that we keep livestock in our state strong and health, and I tell you what, what better tool to have in the toolbox than the best lab in the country and maybe the world to detect and diagnose animal disease?"

What better tool, indeed. And this at a time when Wisconsin is struggling with chronic wasting disease in its deer herd, has almost routine outbreaks of West Nile virus in the summer and, new this year, a deadly fish virus that has made a jump from the Great Lakes to a segment of the inland lakes system.

The UW-Madison already has two other research buildings at its Kegonsa Research Campus and the national lab, a 520,000 square foot building, would have been located on 40 acres the university has there. That too seems to be a good fit.

There are reportedly 17 sites in the running for the lab and that list will be paired to a handful of finalists by the end of next month. Whether the UW bid can survive with the baggage of local opposition seems unlikely unless that turns around.

It would be nice to see this bid move forward. All of Wisconsin would benefit.

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