House committee approves resolution opposing
DuPont nerve agent plan
By RANDALL CHASE
Associated Press Writer
April 7, 2004, 10:49 PM EDT
DOVER, Del. -- A state House committee voted unanimously Wednesday
to release a resolution expressing the General Assembly's opposition to the
treatment of wastewater from the destruction of a deadly nerve agent at a
DuPont facility along the Delaware River.
In releasing the resolution for consideration by the full House, members
of the Business, Corporations and Commerce Committee expressed concerns about
the plan and inability of an Army official to answer their questions.
DuPont has proposed treating up to 4 million gallons of hydrolysate, a caustic
wastewater, left over from the planned destruction of some 1,200 tons of
the nerve agent VX at the Army's Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana.
The plan to treat the hydrolysate at DuPont's Secure Environmental Treatment
facility in Deepwater, N.J., and dump the resulting effluent into the Delaware
River has drawn widespread opposition in Delaware and New Jersey.
The resolution, which already has been approved by the state Senate, urges
the Army to treat the wastewater at the Indiana depot.
"Is it not possible to handle this where it currently exists?" asked Rep.
Stephanie Ulbrich, R-Newark.
Environmental regulators in Delaware and New Jersey continue to study the
plan, and members of the two congressional delegations have requested a formal
review by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center
for Environmental Health.
Col. Jesse Barber of the Army Chemical Materials Agency said Wednesday that
he hoped to hear from the CDC within 60 to 90 days.
"Should CDC raise major issues, I would not proceed forward," said Barber,
who told committee members the DuPont facility is uniquely capable of handling
the wastewater and that a DuPont study has shown the wastewater can be transported
and treated safely.
Barber also said 2,500 gallons of hydrolysate was disposed of safely in an
engineering scale test in Corpus Christi, Texas. Barber was unable to describe
the Corpus Christi experiment to committee members or reporters, saying he
didn't have any details.
Several accounts of hydrolysate treatment at Corpus Christi have been posted
on the Internet, including references by the National Research Council and
other sources to equipment and design problems.
Todd Owens, an engineer at DuPont's SET facility, said treatment of the hydrolysate
would have no impact on the environment, even though hundreds of pounds of
leftover organic salts would be dumped into the Delaware River each day.
Owens said the effluent would comply with the company's existing state and
federal permits.
But when committee chairman Joseph Miro, R-Newark, said he understood that
the entire hydrolysate treatment process would be done in an enclosed environment,
Owens failed to correct him. Owens said the wastewater would be received and
pretreated in enclosed systems, but he failed to mention that part of the
process includes open-air treatment.
John Kearney, a representative of the Clean Air Council, rejected claims
by Barber and Owens that the hydrolysate would not contain any VX. Under
the current proposal, the hydrolysate leaving the Indiana depot for offsite
treatment would have to test below 20 parts per billion of VX, meaning some
amount of the nerve agent could remain in the wastewater.
Kearney also cited research suggesting potential problems from the reaction
of organic salts in the effluent with heavy metals already in the river.
"Essentially, the Delaware River is going to be the guinea pig for this project,"
said Kearney, whose reference to heavy metals was met with skepticism by
Owens.
"I am not familiar with the chemistry that Mr. Kearney referenced," Owens
said.