Several environmental groups have taken their plea to Austin to stop shipments of deactivated nerve agent wastewater to a Port Arthur incinerator.

Appeals are being made to Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Commission for Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The groups, including Port Arthur's Community In-Power and Development Corp., composed a letter to Perry's office and the agencies with the signatures of 28 state legislators and officials of the Houston-based Citizens League for Environmental Action Now.

The only legislator representing Southeast Texas was Rep. Craig Eiland, who represents part of Chambers and Galveston counties. A message from The Enterprise was left with his staff Thursday afternoon, but it had not been returned Thursday night.

Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, said by phone he penned his own letter to the EPA, asking the agency to address the situation in light of both the U.S. Army's studies that it is safe and the environmental groups claims that it isn't. Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, whose area includes part of Jefferson County, is deferring to the TCEQ, which issued the permits for the shipments, said Mike Wright, Janek's spokesman.

The Enterprise also left messages at the offices of Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, and Rep. Allan Ritter, D-Nederland. Neither of those had been returned Thursday night.

Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said the governor's office had no plans to intervene but expects that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality would monitor the shipments.

Perry has been assured by the TCEQ the waste incineration "is not endangering public health or the environment," Cesinger told The Associated Press.

The letter from CLEAN and the legislators contend that risk estimates regarding the shipping and destruction of the wastewater are inadequate. They also raise the question of "environmental racism," noting the low-income minority nature of Port Arthur's West Side, which CIDA's Hilton Kelley says will be unduly affected.

The U.S. Army signed a $49 million contract with Veolia Environmental Services to incinerate about 2 million gallons of hydrolysate, the waste left over after the chemical weapon has been treated at the Newport Chemical Depot in western Indiana, according to The Enterprise archives. Those shipments started arriving at Veolia's incinerator outside of Port Arthur in April.

Both the U.S. Army and Veolia officials have maintained the process is safe.

Several groups, including the Sierra Club, CIDA and the Chemical Weapons Working Group, filed an injunction to stop the shipments in June, but it was overturned by a judge earlier this month.

The plaintiffs plan to file an appeal next week.

"Even if there is one truck left to Port Arthur, we need to get it stopped," Kelley said by phone. "Southeast Texas will not be a dumping ground for chemical waste. We have enough with the refineries."

Geoffrey Castro, executive director of CLEAN, said that group appealed to the governor because previous support from the governors in Ohio and New Jersey have prevented the U.S. Army from shipping the

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