The Department of the Army has issued a Notice of Availability of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) associated with the construction and operation of new U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) facilities and the decommissioning and demolition or re-use of the existing USAMRIID facilities at Fort Detrick, Maryland. A Public Meeting for the DEIS will be conducted at Governor Thomas Johnson High School, 1501 N. Market St., Frederick, at 7 p.m. on August 30. The purpose of the Public Meeting is to allow the public an opportunity to provide comments on the DEIS.
The Proposed Action will replace the existing USAMRIID facilities and provide adequate state-of-the-art biocontainment laboratory space at Biosafety Levels (BSL) 2, 3, and 4. USAMRIID's mission involves conducting research to develop medical solutions -- vaccines, drugs, therapies, and diagnostics -- to protect our armed forces and citizens from biological threats. The proposed new USAMRIID facilities will be located on Fort Detrick, adjacent to the existing USAMRIID facilities and near the Integrated Research Facility of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, now under construction, and the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center of the Department of Homeland Security.
USAMRIID, an organization of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, is the lead biodefense laboratory of the Department of Defense (DoD), with unique facilities and expertise to safely conduct critical research, development, testing, and evaluation for medical solutions to protect our armed forces from biological threats they may encounter on the battlefield. In addition, USAMRIID has been assigned a second mission, namely to leverage these capabilities to support government-wide biological defense efforts by acting as the DoD's lead laboratory for the testing and evaluation of medical biological defense products.
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Contact: Caree Vander Linden
Caree.Vanderlinden@us.army.mil
301-619-2285
US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
10-Aug-2006