N.J. postal facility closed after cleanup bungled

CAMDEN, New Jersey (CNN) -- A federal judge Wednesday ordered a New Jersey postal facility closed until an arbitrator can resolve a dispute over decontamination of a place in the building where anthrax was found.

The dispute is between the U.S. Postal Service and a union representing workers at the South Jersey Processing and Distribution Center in Bellmawr.

The union filed a grievance when the postal service reopened the facility after a hazardous materials team had to treat it a second time because the wrong area was decontaminated the first time.

In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Jerome Simandle ordered the facility closed "as promptly as possible," no later than 9 p.m. ET Wednesday.

He set another hearing in the case for November 13 but expressed hope that arbitration would settle the matter before then.

The postal service issued a statement saying it would abide by the ruling.

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"Our first and foremost concern remains ensuring the safety of our employees. We are in the process of implementing contingency plans to re-route mail to other facilities while the South Jersey plant is closed," the statement said.

USPS spokesman Ralph Stewart said, "We hope this issue can be resolved as quickly as possible."

On October 31, postal officials received a report that a Bellmawr employee had symptoms of skin anthrax. Biopsies were ordered of a lesion on the back of the worker's hand.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has so far reported inconclusive results of tests to determine whether the worker suffered from anthrax exposure.

After receiving the report of a possible exposure, postal officials said they shut down the Bellmawr center for testing.

After preliminary results from the FBI, the New Jersey Department of Health and a private contractor were negative for anthrax, the postal service reopened the Bellmawr facility on Friday, November 3.

On Saturday, however, the FBI returned with final results on testing, which showed one of 55 environmental samples taken at the facility had tested positive for anthrax. The positive sample was discovered on a computer monitor attached to a mail sorting machine.

The facility was again ordered closed, but it reopened a day later after decontamination of the immediate area around the computer.

Then, on Tuesday, in a review meeting between Bellmawr management and representatives from the CDC, a postal employee pointed out that the decontamination company had cleaned the wrong computer monitor.

The facility was closed again Tuesday night while the same company cleaned the area and replaced the contaminated monitor altogether.

The facility reopened again Wednesday morning and work continued on the same floor where anthrax was found. The area around the contaminated computer screen was cordoned off as a precaution, postal officials said.

Union officials went to federal court to shut the facility until its safety can be established to their satisfaction.