GIH: Isn’t it interesting when the US government sells property where it has been claimed they conducted strange experiments, located near montauk, of the infamous Montauk Project. It begs so many questions, the most obvious being – who might be the potential buyer, and what they might do with such a property? An elite resort close to the hamptons, or maybe the new buyer will continue the theme and build a private research lab. Also it makes one wonder about other previous sales which may have been kept secret. Regardless, it is interesting that the Feds would put such a property on the market. What’s Plum Island really like? Here’s one reporter’s tour.
MONTAUK, N.Y. — It has figured in conspiracy theories involving government experimentation with odd hybrid animals, à la Dr. Moreau. It was mentioned in “Silence of the Lambs” as the one place fit for the serial killer Hannibal Lecter. In real life, it was home to a high-security federal laboratory that did important research on contagious animal diseases.
Now, with one of the final federal decisions having been announced this week, Plum Island is that much closer to being sold, though probably at a price to make even Dr. Moreau think twice.
The General Services Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, which are jointly overseeing the sale of the island, released a “record of decision” on Thursday night to help clear the way for an eventual sale that has been in the works since 2008, when the government floated the idea, since approved, of moving the Animal Disease Center to Manhattan — Manhattan, Kan., that is.
The agencies said they had determined to move ahead with plans for an eventual sale, concluding that the island and its facilities would deteriorate if they were to remain in federal hands.
Federal studies had already deemed the island suitable for up to 500 private homes.
Home to populations of terns, seals and sea turtles, to name a few species that have made it a habitat, the island spans about 840 acres.
A coalition of nearly 60 environmental and civic groups has been seeking to stave off a sale, or at least to ensure that much of the island remained protected and under the management of the federal Fish and Wildlife Service after any transfer to private ownership.
The groups also question whether there has been enough study of potential environmental hazards on the island after so many years of sensitive government use.
The Long Island town of Southold, which would have jurisdiction over the island in the event that it passed from federal control, has done its part in the last few days to try to block major private building on the island, which sits just a couple of miles off the coast of the North Fork of Long Island.
On Tuesday, the Southold Town Board unanimously approved a zoning rule that would preserve more than 600 acres and on the rest of the island would prohibit development that was not research-related or educational. (Some related housing would be allowed.)
“ ‘Plum Islands Estates’ is not going to take place on Plum Island,” the Southold town supervisor, Scott A. Russell, said in an interview. With Southold’s tradition of natural preservation, he said, “it would be counterintuitive to our history to say we’re going to permit residential development.”
Mr. Russell, who grew up with sons and daughters of workers at the animal testing lab, said he had never credited the conspiracy theories about the island.
Plum Island, whose original inhabitants were Indians, came under federal control around the time of the Spanish-American War, serving various military uses, including for the Army Chemical Corps.
In 1954, the United States Department of Agriculture made it the home of the Animal Disease Center, which has often worked in secret and now operates under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security. It is the nation’s most important facility combating foreign animal diseases.
And despite the secrecy that has long surrounded it, its Web site lists among its research projects “countermeasures to control foreign animal disease of swine” and “intervention strategies to support the global control and eradication of foot-and-mouth disease virus.”
Its reputation as a place of mystery has endured. In 2010, the former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura featured the island on his TruTV program, “Conspiracy Theory,” calling it a “real-life island of horror” serving as “a secret bio warfare lab,” that could, he said, “kill us all.”
When the so-called Montauk Monster, a badly deformed animal carcass of undetermined origins, washed up on the South Shore a couple of years earlier, some said they saw the handiwork of Plum Island scientists.
Officials apparently do not believe that the lore surrounding the place, which they dispute, will get in the way of the sale of such a cherished commodity as a mostly uninhabited, and naturally stunning, island 100 miles east of New York City. Under current law, the proceeds from the sale of the island would be applied to the new facility in Kansas.
Representative Tim Bishop, who represents the East End of Long Island, said he did not believe that the island could generate much more than $80 million or $90 million, especially now that Southold has placed restrictions on its uses.
He and Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut are pushing bills that would “decouple” the island’s fate from that of the new research center in Kansas, which is not scheduled to be completed until the end of the decade.
