Last Updated

03 Jan 2003

Source: Washington Post, March 7, 2002.

Cost of Anthrax Cleanup on Hill to Top $23 Million, EPA Says

By Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post Staff Writer

The cost of ridding Capitol Hill of anthrax is $23 million and climbing, the Environmental Protection Agency reported yesterday, a figure nearly double its initial estimate and more than the $21 million that Congress gave the agency to address the problem across the nation.

The agency disclosed the toll in response to an inquiry from Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, who has called for a "full accounting" of the agency's handling of the recovery effort.

The escalating costs come as scientists continue to wrestle with how best to rehabilitate facilities, including those of the U.S. Postal Service, after the fall's bioterror attacks.

The Postal Service is preparing to fumigate its Washington sorting and delivery facility -- whose main floor is twice the volume of the Senate Hart Office Building, the epicenter of the Capitol Hill anthrax attack. The Brentwood center, in Northeast, will be the first facility treated, and postal managers will use it as a test before they try to clean contaminated facilities in New Jersey.

Congress approved $21 million last fall for the EPA's nationwide anthrax-related costs. The agency initially estimated it would take $12.5 million to cover its Capitol Hill expenses. By Jan. 18, the agency told Grassley it had spent about $14 million and expected the total to reach $20 million.

In a letter to Grassley dated Tuesday, however, EPA Assistant Administrator Marianne L. Horinko raised the expense, so far, to $23 million.

Horinko added that until work was completed on other buildings and the bills were in, the EPA would not know the final cost of cleaning up the Capitol Hill anthrax site. The agency defined the site as 30 District buildings, including the Hart Building.

Congressional appropriators said yesterday that they are waiting to see whether the Bush administration will seek more money in coming weeks. Separately, the Postal Service received $500 million this winter in emergency legislation to safeguard the mail and employees from bioterror threats.

Grassley complained in a statement yesterday that the EPA had not been specific enough in its answers to questions he raised in January.

"The EPA's response is so lacking in context and answers to all my questions that it's difficult for the taxpayers to judge whether their money was used properly," his statement read. "I plan to learn more about the details of this project."

In response to questions from Grassley as to how and why EPA officials chose specific contractors, the agency said that so far it has paid 25 contractors. Thirteen of those contractors were "sole-source" contractors, chosen after the agency determined that a firm was the only vendor that could provide a needed service on a timely basis. Some of the contractors were recommended by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or a congressionally appointed incident commander, Horinko said.

Major contractors included IT Corp., of Trenton, N.J., which received $4.8 million; Earth Tech Inc., of Richmond, which received $3.1 million; and Environmental Quality management, of Cincinnati, which received $3 million.