A federal judge today denied environmentalists' request that he block truck shipments of nerve agent waste from western Indiana's Newport Chemical Depot to an incinerator in Texas.

Environmental groups failed to make their case that the Army did not fully consider the risks involved in moving the neutralized VX nerve agent waste across some 900 miles of highways in the nation's midsection, U.S. District Judge Larry McKinney wrote in the 57-page ruling.

He also ruled the Army had considered the scientific evidence before concluding that the deadly VX would not reform in the caustic liquid waste called hydrolysate.

The Chemical Weapons Working Group, the Sierra Club and other groups argued in the lawsuit filed in May that some batches of the waste produced by Newport's ongoing VX neutralization project contain more residual VX and a toxic byproduct called EA2192 than the Army maintains.

But McKinney said the record showed the Army had "sought and received scientific advice" about the proper method to detect both chemicals and "made a decision based on scientific principles."

"This Court cannot and will not substitute its judgment ... for that of the Government," he wrote.

The environmental groups contended that the shipments from Newport, about 30 miles north of Terre Haute, to Port Arthur would threaten public health and the environment if one or more of the trucks carrying the liquid waste crashed or was targeted by terrorists.

The environmental groups wanted the Army to stick to its original plan of disposing of the VX waste at the Indiana depot.

The Army agreed in June to suspend the shipments until McKinney decided whether to issue an injunction blocking the transfers. By that time, 103 tanker trucks had hauled the waste from Indiana to Texas. It was not immediately clear today how rapidly the shipments might resume. The Associated Press left messages with Army spokespeople seeking comment.

The Army signed a $49 million contract in April with Veolia Environmental Services to incinerate at its Port Arthur complex about 2 million gallons of the waste. VX is a Cold War-era chemical weapon so deadly only a tiny droplet can kill a human.

The Army contends the waste contains only a minuscule amount of VX -- 20 parts per billion or less -- and is no more dangerous than other hazardous wastes shipped each day across the nation.

The Army's agreement with Veolia came after two earlier deals, with Perma-Fix Environmental Services Inc., in Dayton, Ohio, and DuPont Co. in Deepwater, N.J., were scuttled because of strong opposition.

The Army estimates that more than 300 additional truckloads of hydrolysate will be needed to haul away the remaining waste Newport's VX neutralization is expected to produce.

Although the shipments to Veolia are on hold, an Army contractor continues to chemically neutralize Newport's VX stockpile, which was originally more than 250,000 gallons.