By: JACK FICHTER
May 5, 2004
DEEPWATER — The U.S. Army is planning to dump treated VX nerve agent
into the Delaware River here which will flow through Delaware Bay and onto
the Atlantic Ocean in Cape May County.
Delaware Riverkeeper Maya K. van Rossum said the Army has stockpiles of
chemical weapons around the country and under a treaty from 1997, they are
under an obligation to destroy them.
The Army has stockpiled VX nerve agent in Newport, Ind., which it proposes
to partially treat and turn into a solution called hydrolysate or VXH.
The VXH will be transported by truck to this state on Route 80 to the New
Jersey Turnpike to Salem County, through highly-populated areas of the state.
The mixture will be delivered to Dupont Chambers Works in Deepwater for additional
treatment and dumping into the Delaware River.
“It’s not VX but has all of the components necessary to make VX,” said von
Rossum. “Under the right conditions, it could reform into VX.”
VXH could contain VX agent up to 20 parts per billion (ppb).
When 4 million gallons of treated VX is dumped in the river, tidal action
could cause it to linger in the river or bay for as long as 72 hours, said
van Rossum.
“It’s not like it is flowing down and out the river,” she said. “It’s getting
caught up in the tidal action and moving back and forth as more and more gets
contributed.”
“Your area is effected by every pollution discharge that is washed into
or directly dumped into the river,” said van Rossum.
In Newport, Ind., the community repeatedly voiced its preference that the
VX nerve agent be treated and destroyed on site, but the Army changed its
mind after Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and decided the VX should be disposed
of at another location.
“If the Army is concerned about terrorists... why on earth are they not
looking at the very real possibility that terrorists will take the opportunity,
during transport, to get their hands on this stuff,” said van Rossum.
One drop of VX can cause paralysis and death within minutes.
As far as the treatment DuPont proposes before dumping VXH into the Delaware
River, van Rossum said some phosphates will be removed along with thiolamine.
What remains, Ethylmethylphosphonic acid (EMPA) and mehylposphonic acid
(MPA), will only be treated by dumping it in the river, she said.
“There has been no scientific study of the environmental impact on the aquatic
environment of this stuff,” said van Rossum. “They are using dilution as their
solution to pollution.”
An Ohio EPA study showed VX at a level of 20 ppb after 17.5 hours, killed
half of the striped bass exposed to it.
“What happens when you mix MPA, EMPA, with PCBs, dioxin, mercury and phosphorus
with all these other contaminants in the river and bay?” asked van Rossum.
“What are the ramifications? Nobody is looking at that.”
She said the Army published a tiny notice in Today’s Sunbeam, a Salem County
newspaper, at Christmas, to inform the public of their intent to dump the
toxins in the river. She said the Army limited public comment to the transporting
of the VX solution by truck and stopped receiving comments on April 19.
Van Rossum said the governors of New Jersey and Delaware issued a letter
to the Army that raised concerns about DuPont’s ability to treat and dispose
of VXH.
Delaware Riverkeeper Network has been arguing that DuPont needs a permit
modification from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in
order to allow such a discharge.
“
Dupont is asserting that it does not need additional approvals from DEP,
and that it can go straight ahead with this stuff,” said van Rossum.
The Dupont facility is in the business of disposing of hazardous waste and
has discharged mustard gas into the river in the past, said van Rossum.
She advised concerned residents to write to Gov. James E. McGreevey and
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).
DuPont has also submitted applications to DEP to dump low-level radioactive
waste water and infectious wastes into Delaware River, according to a report
obtained by the Wilmington News Journal.