WASHINGTON, DC - The Postal Service today announced contract awards to Ashland Inc. of Covington, KY and its Drew Industrial Division, and Sabre Oxidation Technologies Inc. of Odessa, TX, for the clean up of the anthrax contaminated Washington, DC Processing & Distribution Center (the Brentwood facility) and Trenton Processing & Distribution Center, Hamilton Township, NJ. The Ashland Inc. contract award is for $1,164,670 and the Sabre contract award is for $1,255,833. The contracts signed with Ashland and Sabre initially cover the Brentwood facility, and provides the framework for the cleanup that will be done in Trenton. The Postal Service will finalize the contractors' engagement for Trenton once the Brentwood cleanup has been completed and deemed a success. Ashland and Sabre, along with Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure, Inc. of Baton Rouge, LA (formerly The IT Group, already under contract with the Postal Service), will provide decontamination services including design, program development and application of chlorine dioxide (CLO2) gas to eradicate anthrax contamination from the bio-terrorist events of September and October 2001. It is anticipated that decontamination of the Brentwood facility will begin in the next few months.