D.C. anthrax removal in second day

12/29/2001

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The latest effort to remove residual anthrax spores from the heating and ventilation system of a Senate office building entered its second day Saturday.

Lt. Dan Nichols, a Capitol Police spokesman, said the fumigation of the Hart Senate Office Building should be completed later in the day.

The building has been closed since Oct. 17, two days after an anthrax-laced letter was opened in the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

On Friday technicians began pumping steam into the ventilation system to raise humidity. At first, as in a past attempt, the humidity remained below optimum levels. After some adjustments, anthrax-killing chlorine dioxide was added, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesman said.

Two previous attempts to clean the building failed to eliminate the potentially deadly spores.

``We're picking up now where we left off a couple of weeks ago when we had difficulty getting the humidity up,'' Richard Rupert, the EPA's onsite coordinator, said Friday. ``We made a lot of modifications to the system.''

While other work was being done inside the building to remove anthrax, Rupert said he hoped this would be the final fumigation using toxic gas.

Nichols said the fumigation work, initially expected to be finished Saturday morning, was not being rushed.

``We are continuing the process in order to get a better kill of the anthrax spores,'' he said.

Once the fumigation process is completed, another 72 hours of testing probably will be necessary before the building is declared safe, experts said.

Officials have refused to speculate when the building might reopen.