By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The Brentwood Road postal facility here, which was contaminated during the 2001 anthrax attacks and has since been the focus of a major decontamination effort, is expected to resume full operations by the end of November, a U.S. Postal Service spokesman told Global Security Newswire today (see GSN, March 5).

Preliminary tests conducted in early March indicated that decontamination of the Brentwood Road facility had been a success.  An Environmental Clearance Committee — consisting of scientific experts from a number of agencies, including the Washington Health Department, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration — then reviewed the results and declared the facility to be clean, Postal Service spokesman Bob Anderson said.

The Postal Service is now in the process of renovating the facility in preparation for resuming full operation, which postal officials have set for “the holidays” — meaning by the end of November, Anderson said.  The decontamination process, which involved filling the facility with chlorine dioxide gas to kill lingering anthrax spores, resulted in the creation of salt and water byproducts that caused some corrosion that needs to be cleaned, he said. 

The renovation work is being performed by contractors and former Brentwood Road employees working as volunteers, Anderson said, adding that the former employees working at the site are “enthusiastic and ready to get back to work.”  Community meetings are set to be held once the facility is fully operational to address lingering concerns, Anderson said, noting that no such meetings have yet been scheduled.

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