Freezing weather delayed transport of VX hydrosylate from the U.S. Army's chemical weapons depot in Newport, Ind., by 24 hours, a spokesman at Veolia Environmental Services in Port Arthur said.

A three-truck convoy departed the depot from Newport, about 80 miles west of Indianapolis, at 5:30 a.m. today and should complete the 18-hour drive by early Wednesday morning, said Dan Duncan, Veolia's environmental health and safety manager.

Duncan said the ice storm affecting much of the nation's midsection is north of the Newport depot.

A second three-truck convoy bearing 3,800 gallons apiece of the caustic wastewater residue from the neutralized nerve gas should reach the Port Arthur incinerator plant by Saturday, Duncan said.

This signals a resumption of shipments from the Army to dispose of the wastewater that resulted from destruction of the chemical weapon at the Indiana site.

The Army temporarily halted shipment because one of the trucks had cracks in the cage that holds the tank containing the wastewater. The Army then inspected all the trucks used in the shipments and cleared them for duty, a spokesman for the Army's Chemical Management Agency said.

Shipments began in April and the contract to incinerate more than 400 tank loads should be completed by next July or August, Duncan said.

dwallach@hearstnp.com
(409) 838-2876