200 discuss treatment of nerve agent waste

RANDALL CHASE
Associated Press Writer

March 19, 2004, 10:59 PM EST

WILMINGTON, Del. -- More than 200 people gathered in Wilmington on Friday night to talk about the Army's plan to dispose of wastewater from the destruction of a deadly nerve agent at a DuPont facility along the Delaware River.

The Army has proposed shipping wastewater resulting from the destruction of the Cold War-era nerve agent VX at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana to DuPont's Secure Environmental Treatment facility in Deepwater, N.J., located at the foot of the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

DuPont would break down the chemicals in the wastewater and dump effluent containing some chemical byproducts into the Delaware River.

A single drop of liquid VX can cause paralysis and death within minutes.

Under the Army proposal, the nerve agent would be neutralized in Indiana in a process resulting in a chemical byproduct called hydrolysate, a caustic liquid sometimes compared to liquid drain cleaner. The hydrolysate would not be allowed to leave Indiana unless the concentration of VX is no more than 20 parts per billion.

"It is not VX, and it is verified 'non-detect' for VX," said Col. Jesse Barber, a project manager for chemical weapons destruction at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

"At no time will this project submit the public, its workers or the environment to risk," Barber said.

But Tracy Carluccio of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network was not reassured by the fact that there is an allowable concentration of VX in the hydrolysate.

"What that means is that nerve agent in dilute form is traveling on some of our most heavily traveled highways," she said, suggesting that the tanker trucks could become potential terrorist targets.

Carluccio said the best solution would be for the hydrolysate to remain on site in Indiana. But Barber said the Army has determined that offsite shipment of the hydrolysate is the only option that would allow the destruction of some 1,200 tons of VX to begin this year.

"What's wrong with Crawford, Texas?" suggested one audience member.

While some critics are concerned about the chemicals that would be dumped into the Delaware River, others fear that the chemical byproducts in the wastewater may be able reform into VX, a notion dismissed by DuPont and Army officials.

"The agent cannot reformulate," said John Strait, plant manager at DuPont's New Jersey facility.

Barber said the VX is destroyed within seconds when added to sodium hydroxide heated to 194 degrees, and that more sodium hydroxide is added to make sure the agent is neutralized. The resulting hydrolysate consists of 85 percent water, 11 percent toxic organic salts, and 4 percent sodium hydroxide.

Strait said that if DuPont is awarded the contract, it could receive between 2 million and 4 million gallons of hydrolysate over a two-year period, discharging a roughly equal amount of effluent into the Delaware River. The primary chemical constituents in the effluent, methylphosphonic acid and ethyl-methylphophonic acid, would be discharged into the river at the rate of up to 400 pounds per day, but DuPont and Army officials say the chemicals do not pose a threat to aquatic life.

"The toxicity of those compounds is about equivalent to table salt," said Scott Rowden, environmental manager at the Newport Chemical Depot.

But several area residents said the dumping of chemicals into the Delaware River needs to stop.

"We are tired of your pollution, we don't want any more," said John Kearney of the Clean Air Council, who said DuPont already dumps more than 1 million pounds of chemicals into the river every year.

"Delaware already has one of the highest cancer rates in the nation," said Ernest Davis. "This is a troubled waterway in a very densely populated area."

Friday's public meeting followed a similar one Wednesday attended by about 300 people in Carney's Point, N.J.

Barber said the public comment period on the Army's environmental assessment has been extended for a second time, through April 19.

Earlier this month, DuPont released its own 350-page study concluding that it could safely and effectively transport and treat the wastewater without harming the environment.

A subcontractor for the Army originally planned to transport the hydrolysate about 200 miles from the Newport depot to a treatment and disposal facility near Dayton, Ohio. The plan was dropped and the subcontractor fired in October after residents filed a lawsuit and the subcontractor was unable to obtain a permit to discharge the treated wastewater into the local sewer system.