In January 2004, Giuliani Partners formed Bio-ONE as a joint venture with an environmental company, Sabre Technical Services, to do the job. They planned to pump anthrax-killing chlorine dioxide gas into the building through giant pipes, then suck it back out and convert the gas into harmless salt water.
At a news conference here, Giuliani hailed the fumigation system as a "symbol" of America's fight against terrorism. He said Bio-ONE would turn the site into a national center to fight chemical and biological attacks, and he promised to attend a gala opening.
In July 2004, teams in gas masks and protective moon-suits pumped the microbiocide into the sealed offices on schedule. The gas killed anthrax inside the building, according to initial tests by state and federal environmental officials.
But the effort stalled over the fate of 8,000 boxes of files and photos, showing everything from Elvis in his coffin to the legendary Bat Boy in his cave. Under the contract, Bio-ONE was supposed to incinerate the boxes. But under pressure to preserve the photographs, the company built a special chamber to decontaminate them one by one.
"They only completed a very small percentage [of the photos] after a couple of months," said Tim O'Connor, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Health Department. "Then they ran out of time and just walked away."
Bio-One officials said they pulled out because their contract expired in May 2005 and the owner refused to renegotiate. The owner instead hired Maryland-based MARCOR Remediation to disinfect as many photos as possible and burn the rest. MARCOR finished the work in three months, according to project manager Lynn Dewees.
Bio-ONE officials won't say how much money they lost in the dispute, and the developer, Rustine, did not respond to repeated phone calls.
"We did not get paid," said Karen Cavanagh, chief counsel for Bio-ONE. "We committed our senior science staff and all our major equipment there for over a year. Was it ever resolved? The answer is no."
The building reopened last spring and now is occupied by Applied Card Systems, which processes credit cards. Nothing in the lobby suggests the site's sad history.
Nor does anything on the Giuliani Partners website, which still posts celebratory notices from 2004 announcing Bio-ONE's plan to remove all the anthrax.
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bob.drogin@latimes.com
