PORT ARTHUR - The turnout was small, the enthusiasm was evident, and the message was clear at Carver Terrace Park Saturday - VX waste is not welcome in Port Arthur.

"We're having a disproportionate amount of chemicals being dumped on us," proclaimed a lively Hilton Kelly with a group of about 25 supporters behind him. "How much more are we going to take?" he pressed the crowd to a modicum of applause. "Enough is enough."

Hilton and his group, Community In-Power Development Association, (CIDA), along with Craig Williams of the Chemical Weapons Working Group and Geoffrey Castro of the Citizens League for Environmental Action Now, sponsored and organized a rally and march to inform the public of the VX nerve agent wastewater that is being disposed of by incineration at the Veolia plant in Port Arthur.

Williams contends the U.S. Army is breaking state and federal laws by transferring chemicals over state lines, which he says is the case because there are still VX remnants in the wastewater. Williams also argues that the Port Arthur community was supposed to have a say in whether or not the waste would be accepted. That opportunity never came.

There has been much back-and-forth about the disposal of the deadly nerve agent after the Army signed a $49 million contract with Veolia in April to dispose of some 1.8 millions gallons of the toxic wastewater from its current storage site in Newport, Ind., over a three year period.

Shipments from Newport to Port Arthur, a 1,000-mile trip, began April 16. However they stopped momentarily on June 19 because of an injunction hearing in July to stop the shipments. A court ruled against stopping the shipments in August, and the shipments to Port Arthur since have resumed.

Kelly and Castro both said they're severely disappointed by the lack of support they've received from local elected officials, whom they believe would make the difference in getting the shipments stopped for good.

Castro said he's called local officials and he said, oftentimes, their main concern was who else was attached to the VX waste issue. "Some people didn't want to be involved because of who else wasn't involved," Castro said.

"It was almost micropolitical." Castro said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has the authority to stop the shipments himself through an executive order, has chosen not to do so because the Texas Campaign for the Environment had already issued a permit allowing the transfer of the waste. Castro said it's been the work of governors in New Jersey and Ohio that have stopped the possible shipments of waste into their states.

In Port Arthur, Kelly said he had informed city council members and Mayor Deloris Prince of Saturday's rally and march, but no one showed. Attempts to reach Prince were unsuccessful.

Despite the less than stellar turnout, all in attendance were pleased about those who were there.

At the march's conclusion, the St. John's Missionary Baptist Church, about 30 men, women and children, ate barbecue ribs, chicken, potato salad and baked beans while discussing what would be done next.

"It's not too late to stop the rest of what's still left to be sent," said Williams, who was in from Kentucky to help promote Saturday's anti-VX waste cause. Legislative, political and legal recourse are all still possibilities as the three groups try to educate the local area and persuade local officials to join their crusade in stopping VX wastewater shipments.

Warren Field, a concerned citizen of El Vista and Vista Village and a Port Arthur native who worked in Los Angeles and Houston before coming back to his hometown to retire, lives 6.5 miles from where the wastewater is incinerated. He was disappointed with the turnout and who didn't show, but is not deterred in the fight for environmental justice as he sees it. "I always think right will prevail," the 66-year-old Field said.

"That's God's law ... right will prevail."

Tammy McKinley/The Enterprise
Kery Gumps, 4, joins other residents in protest
Saturday of VX nerve agent wastewater being
shipped to Port Arthur area.