Anthrax Tests Set at Capital Mail Facility

More than a year after anthrax killed two workers in the main mail handling center for the capital, decontamination work involving chlorine dioxide gas is to begin Saturday.

The 17.5-million-cubic-foot Brentwood facility has been closed since October 2001, when anthrax-laced letters to members of Congress were processed there.

Safety was the top concern as the decontamination process was planned, said Tom Day, the Postal Service’s vice president of engineering.

“Every time we had a choice, we went on the side of doing it safer, rather than faster,” he said Wednesday.

A 282-yard safety perimeter will be set up around the building and an Environmental Protection Agency vehicle that monitors trace atmospheric gases also will patrol the area.

Crews in protective gear eventually will collect more than 8,000 spore strips from 4,000 locations over 20 to 30 days.

The strips will be sent to a lab for testing, with the results analyzed by a committee led by officials from the District of Columbia’s Public Health Department and the EPA. No one from the Postal Service will be on the committee, Day said.

Only when the results show zero growth of anthrax spores will the building be deemed clean.

The Postal Service will do some remodeling and equipment maintenance, expected to take three to four months. If everything goes as planned, Day said postal workers could be back in the building by late April.