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Rain washes out First
Friday
By SEAN C. McCULLEN
BRIDGETON -- Ernesto sure did wreak havoc on the
city's First Friday festivities. . .
The American Littoral Society (ALS), which earlier this year opened an office at 4 W. Commerce St., also went forward with its plans for the night despite the inclement weather.
The ALS, which aims to preserve coastal regions through intelligent planning, hosted a public rally to oppose the DuPont-Army plan to dump VX nerve gas waste into the Delaware River.
Attendance for the rally on the controversial issue was light, though ALS conservation coordinator Matt Blake, who organized the rally, was pleased to see government officials from both sides of the political aisle show up.
The U.S. Army plans to transport 4 million gallons of the nerve gas' byproduct -- VX hydrolysate -- from its Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Newport, Ind., to DuPont's Chambers Works treatment facility in Deepwater, Salem County, where it would be further treated and then discharged into the Delaware. The disposal would be carried out over four years, Blake said.
The Army and DuPont still have not been granted the state Department of Environmental Protection's discharge permit for the plan. Thus, the ALS had opposition letters prepared for those who attended the rally to send to Gov. Jon Corzine.
A similar plan was rejected by Ohio's environmental protection agency after a study found that VX byproduct at the threshold level that is proposed to be discharged into the Delaware killed 50 percent of juvenile striped bass, Blake said.
Blake admitted that all of the potential risks of DuPont dumping the VX byproduct into the Delaware are not yet known, and might not be for years. But he has heard enough about VX that he doesn't want to see the plan go through, wasting 20-plus years of progress in cleaning up the Delaware River and Delaware Bay.
"It's a really nasty product," he said.
Republican Freeholder Jim Rocco noted the freeholder board unanimously passed a resolution opposing the VX disposal plan.
"This plan would affect the county's eco-tourism," he said.
Blake commended the county freeholders for passing the opposition resolution, noting Cape May County freeholders passed a similar resolution.
Rocco was joined at the rally by Assemblyman Doug Fisher, Freeholder Bruce Peterson and congressional candidate and Fairfield Township committeewoman Viola Thomas-Hughes -- all Democrats.
Thomas-Hughes called on her incumbent opponent, U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, to come out against the plan. She also questioned why LoBiondo, as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, did not come out and oppose the plan from the time it was first considered.
Meghan Wren, a Money Island resident and ALS and Bayshore Discovery Project board member, wondered aloud why the Delaware Bay is being treated like "the ugly stepsister."
"I doubt they would consider doing this in the Chesapeake," Wren said. "There's been so much effort put into cleaning things up (in the Delaware River and Delaware Bay). It doesn't seem to make sense to cater to them, to go backwards."
Commercial fisherman George Kumor of Heislerville also attended the rally.
But he's not so sure the plan should not be allowed to go through, an opinion that was not necessarily well-received at the rally.
In fact, Kumor told the Maurice River Township committee last week that he'd like it to reverse its earlier resolution opposing the VX disposal plan -- a resolution he'd previously asked it to pass.
Kumor apparently has been convinced that the DuPont-Army plan would not have the dramatic impact on marine life that many fear. He pleaded with Blake to meet with him to discuss the issue and others.
"From what I investigated, the Army is going through the process any industry would," he said. "It's real easy to go along with the crowd."