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Department of Homeland Security Plans to Expand Plum Island Facility
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State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has written a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to oppose any plans for an expanded biological lab on Plum Island

Plum Island sits eight miles from Connecticut's shore and is home to a federal biological lab. Its a Level 3 facility that studies highly contagious animal diseases.  

The Department of Homeland Security is currently looking at Plum Island and several sites around the country to build a new lab that would  study diseases that have no cure, a Level 4 designation.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says expanding Plum Island's facility would make it a sitting target for terrorists

"This new facility would study and experiment with some of the most dangerous pathogens, most infectious  diseases that have no known cures or vaccines, many of them not even existing in this country right now. And it would do so in a location that could not be worse in terms of security and environment."

Blumenthal is urging the federal government to consider other remote areas for the lab. He says Homeland Security's list includes sites in Mississipi, Texas, North Carolina, and Kansas.
He expects the agency will  decide on a location for the new bio lab in November.