The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced that it stopped receiving mail from the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday, March 15 after signs of possible anthrax contamination were reported at the Pentagon mail facility and several other Defense Department mail facilities in northern Virginia. The postal service blackout was extended to all government agencies in the area.

A FERC source confirmed that the announcement the Commission would not be receiving mail from the government postal service was related to the anthrax scare, voicing the hope that extensive testing would come up negative for the actual anthrax bacteria and mail service could be resumed.

The Commission announcement said it continues to receive filings from private mail delivery services, including messenger services. It “strongly encourages electronic filing of documents in lieu of paper by using the ‘eFiling’ link at https://www.ferc.gov. FERC said it did not know at this time when mail service would resume.

Samples taken at the Pentagon remote delivery mail facility were positive for anthrax in preliminary overnight tests, The Washington Post said Tuesday, quoting a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services. But officials do not yet know definitively if anthrax bacteria are present or, if they are, whether they could have transmitted disease. The samples tested passed through the facility March 10, according to the Armed Forces Information Service. Further tests were expected to take 48 to 72 hours, Pentagon officials said.

A second biological alarm went off March 14 in facilities leased by the Pentagon in Falls Church, VA, and those buildings were shut down.

FERC said it expects to issue another notice in the future to inform the public when postal service will resume.

©Copyright 2005Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.