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ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON--Two members of Congress joined District of Columbia officials yesterday for a tour of a massive mail-handling plant where two U.S. Postal Service employees from Maryland died after handling anthrax-laced letters bound for Capitol Hill.
Since last December, the federal government has spent $130 million decontaminating and renovating Northeast Washington's Brentwood mail facility in preparation for the return of employees.
"Every cent has been well spent, and we've got to make people understand that it's safe to come in here and buy stamps, get mail and, yes, even work here eight hours a day," said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C.
Since preparations to clean up the city's main mail-processing facility began following the anthrax attack of October 2001, Norton has insisted that elected officials and senior U.S. Postal Service managers spend time in the building before regular employees return.
"The building is safe as it can humanly be made, but we'd feel a whole lot safer if we caught the anthrax terrorist," Norton said. Contractors expect to turn the building over to the Postal Service Nov. 28, when administrators move into their refurbished offices. Counter service could begin by mid-December, with mail sorting operations possible by early January.
John H. Bridges III, an Aquia Harbour resident who served as incident commander for the cleanup, said he was glad to see the project reaching its conclusion.
"I think it culminates a lot of efforts," Bridges said of yesterday's tour by members of Congress and officials from federal agencies such as the General Accounting Office and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
He also said it "was a good signal" that those folks were willing to tour the building without any protective gear.
Since the building was fumigated last December, more than 28,000 samples have been taken to be sure that all the anthrax spores were killed.
Now, seven to 14 air samples are taken daily to check if anything is stirred up by using the building. Those tests have also failed to detect any problems, Bridges said.
Following the discovery of two letters mailed to the offices of Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy on Oct. 9, 2001, from Trenton, N.J., the Hart Senate Office Building was closed and congressional staffers were immediately tested and given access to antibiotics.
"It was handled differently for Capitol Hill than it was for this facility," said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va. He stood near the spot where Joseph Curseen, Jr., 47, of Clinton, Md., and Thomas Morris, Jr., 55, of Suitland, Md., were exposed to anthrax. Both later died.
North Stafford resident Leroy Richmond, a Brentwood postal employee, became critically ill but survived his exposure.
The Brentwood building was renamed in honor of the slain employees and the machine that processed the tainted letters has been dismantled and removed. New equipment will be installed in the area where the two slain men worked.
"We wouldn't ask employees to go anywhere that we as members of Congress who oversee this wouldn't go," said Davis, who chairs the House Government Reform Committee which is responsible for Postal Service matters.
The series of anthrax-tainted letters mailed to government offices and media outlets during that period killed five people and sickened 17 others.
"There was no anthrax in here prior to Oct. 20, 2001, and there will be no anthrax in here, hopefully, when we come back in," said Theodore J. Gordon, senior deputy director for environmental health science and regulation for the D.C. Dept. of Health. In the weeks following the anthrax attack, his agency distributed antibiotics to 17,000 people who may have been exposed to the bacteria spores.
D.C. officials lobbied hard for decontaminating the building because it is the largest employer in the city's Ward Five council district. Tests conducted since decontamination took place last December have turned up no evidence of living or dead anthrax spores.
"This facility had life and vitality, employees and provided service to the public. We're glad it wasn't just abandoned" said City Administrator Robert C. Bobb.
Representatives of the four Postal Service labor unions representing the 2,500 full- and part-time employees who regularly work or pass through Brentwood also toured the 14.6 million-square-foot facility.
"My presence here today is a signal to the letter carriers that it's OK to come back now," said Bill Young, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers.
While the Postal Service has given employees the option of transferring to other facilities rather than returning, union officials said most are eager to return.
Staff writer Pamela Gould contributed to this report.