Associated Press
October 14, 2993

Subcontractor dismissed from VX disposal project

A subcontractor hired to dispose of 300,000 gallons of a chemical created by the destruction of the deadly VX nerve agent has been ordered to end its work on the project.

In a brief statement released Monday, the main contractor for the VX destruction project said it had directed Perma-Fix of Dayton, Ohio "to stop work on the subcontract" to dispose of the chemical hydrolysate.

Parsons Engineering's statement also said Perma-Fix's Dayton site had been "eliminated as an alternative" for disposing of the hydrolysate.

Parsons' move comes nearly three months after a citizens group sued the Army to try to block the hydrolysate from being shipped from the Newport Chemical Depot to Perma-Fix's disposal site in suburban Dayton, Ohio.

Telephone messages were left after hours at the offices of both Parsons and Perma-Fix. Parsons' Gainesville, Fla., headquarters directed calls to a spokeswoman, who did not answer and had no
answering machine.

Parsons Engineering was hired to build and operate equipment that would destroy a stockpile of more than 1,200 tons of VX stored at the Army's chemical weapons depot in Newport, Ind., about 30 miles north of Terre Haute.

Perma-Fix was hired as a subcontractor to dispose of 300,000 gallons of hydrolysate that will be created when the Cold War-era nerve agent is neutralized using a chemical process.

Perma-Fix would have been paid $9 million to dispose of the first 330,000 gallons of hydrolysate, a caustic material, at its Dayton site. Perma-Fix officials have compared the byproduct to household Drano - still hazardous, but far from the toxic threat posed by VX.

In July, members of the activist group Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Miami Valley sued the Army over its plans to dispose of hydrolysate in Dayton.

Ellis Jacobs, a Dayton lawyer who represents the activist group, said Monday that the group's members were pleased with the development.

"The community has been outraged" by the plans to destroy the nerve agent in Ohio, he said. "It's our hope and expectation that the Army is going back to plan 'A,' which is to do the job" in Newport, Ind.

Last year, Congress ordered the Army to destroy all stockpiled chemical weapons by 2004.