DuPont responds to CDC
comments about nerve agent project
By RANDALL CHASE
Associated Press Writer
March 26, 2004, 7:49 PM EST
DOVER, Del. -- Federal public health officials are reviewing
DuPont's response to their concerns about a plan to dispose of wastewater
from the destruction of a deadly nerve agent at a DuPont facility along the
Delaware River.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta received DuPont's
response to its questions late Thursday, a month after DuPont and the U.S.
Army received CDC's comments and three weeks after DuPont released a draft
report suggesting that the CDC had signed off on the plan.
"We did not review any of the DuPont documents in their final form prior
to release," said Stephanie Creel, a spokeswoman for the CDC.
DuPont's response was not received until after the CDC complained this week
that the chemical company misrepresented the federal agency's role in reviewing
DuPont's technical assessment of the project.
DuPont subsequently issued a news release clarifying that the CDC had reviewed
only a toxicology assessment of health hazards, not DuPont's entire 350-page
report.
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 has proposed treating up to 4 million gallons of hydrolysate, a caustic
wastewater that would be left over from the planned destruction of tons of
VX, and discharging a roughly equal amount of effluent into the Delaware
River.
DuPont and federal officials refused Friday to release a copy of the company's
responses to more than 20 comments and questions submitted by the CDC on
Feb. 27. Creel said the CDC considered DuPont's submission "a working document."
"We're not hiding anything," said Jeff Lindblad, a spokesman for the U.S.
Army Chemical Materials Agency. "We feel that they need time to look at it."
In at least one instance, however, DuPont ignored the CDC's recommendations.
In its assessment of the health hazards associated with handling the hydrolysate,
DuPont in several instances equated the toxicity of two chemicals that would
remain in effluent dumped into the Delaware River to the toxicity of table
salt.
Officials made the same comparison in public meetings held this month in
Wilmington and New Jersey.
But in its comments about DuPont's plan, the CDC said the comparison of methylphosphonic
acid and ethyl methylphosphonic acid to table salt should be dropped. The
two chemicals would be discharged into the river at the rate of up to 400
pounds per day, but DuPont and Army officials say they do not pose a threat
to aquatic life.
"Comparing the toxicity of MPA and EMPA to table salt is suggestive of a
public relations effort and should not be included in a serious scientific
document," the CDC wrote.
DuPont officials ignored the recommendation.
"Knowing that this was a public outreach document, it was our intent to make
it something that could be easily understood," said Todd Owens, an engineer
at DuPont's SET facility.
While refusing to provide details, Owens said DuPont accepted the CDC's comments
"in most cases."
"I think the assessment is an accurate one, from our perspective," he said.
"It does show the project can be done safely."