Congressman wants Army to investigate disposal of VX byproduct
Associated Press
May 13, 2004, 4:04 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- The Army should investigate whether it had anything
to do with the dumping of the neutralized byproduct of a deadly nerve agent
into the Delaware River last year, a member of Congress said Thursday.
U.S. Rep. Robert E. Andrews, D-Haddon Heights, requested Lt. Gen. Paul T.
Mikolashek, the Army inspector general, to look into the issue.
Andrews has been among the most outspoken elected officials opposing a plan
to neutralize deadly VX nerve agent stockpiled at an Indiana facility and
move the caustic byproduct to a DuPont facility in Deepwater, N.J.
The byproduct, known as hydrolysate, would be further treated by DuPont,
then released into the Delaware River.
The plan has come under intense scrutiny from citizens, public officials
and environmental regulators in both Delaware and New Jersey.
The News-Journal of Wilmington, Del., reported in Thursday's editions that
the Delaware River Basin Commission, which oversees the water supply and
water environment on the Delaware and its tributaries, intends to block the
plan.
DuPont revealed this spring that it released effluent left over from treatability
tests on hydrolysate into the river last year along with other wastewater.
Officials in both Delaware and New Jersey said they had been unaware of that
release.
Andrews said the Army should have known about it.
"I am concerned that the Army was not sufficiently involved in the treatability
studies or the final disposal of the remnants of this experiment," Andrews
wrote in his letter to Mikolashek.