N.J. postal unit reopens after cleanup dispute

CAMDEN, New Jersey (CNN) -- A federal judge ordered a New Jersey postal facility reopened Thursday night following a five-hour hearing in a dispute over decontamination of a place in the building where anthrax was found.

U.S. District Judge Jerome Simandle said management of the South Jersey Processing and Distribution Center in Bellmawr had reached an agreement with local union officials under which the building would reopen, contingent upon "systematic anthrax testing" to be conducted through February 2002.

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Lawyers for both parties were still hammering out details of the monitoring.

"We are very pleased with the mutual agreement and look forward to working with union officials," said Postal Service spokesman Paul Smith.

Simandle closed the facility Wednesday night at the request of union officials.

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.

On October 31, postal officials received a report 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 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.

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.