We're glad that, after three years of vocal opposition from many in the region, DuPont has opted not to release treated VX nerve gas in the Delaware River.

It was a real victory for New Jersey and the entire region Friday when DuPont announced that it's dropping its plan to treat the remains of deadly VX nerve gas in Salem County and release the byproduct of that treatment into the Delaware River.

The Army has more than 1,200 tons of the extremely lethal chemical weapon produced during the Cold War at a weapons depot in Indiana. Some of that VX has already gone through the initial neutralization process on site.

The plan was to neutralize all the VX, then ship it to DuPont's Chambers Works plant in Carneys Point where the still dangerous material would be further treated. The caustic wastewater left from the treatment process was to be disposed of by slowly releasing it into the lower Delaware River, where it would simply be diluted.

There may have been studies showing the plan was safe and wouldn't harm the environment, but the fact of the matter is, the plan never made sense.

For one thing, there was no good reason to take something as dangerous as VX -- a single drop of which can kill a person in minutes -- and put countless Americans at risk by transporting neutralized VX hundreds of miles from Indiana to New Jersey. It just wasn't a very logical idea, especially when, in 2005, another company, Georgia-based Perma-Fix Environmental Services Inc., said it could fully destroy the VX at the Newport, Ind., depot where it's stored and do it without leaving behind any caustic wastewater.

Secondly, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania, which have more than enough problems with pollution, did not need to let the region's main waterway become a dumping ground. The river provides drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people. The Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, which the bay empties into, are major sources of seafood for restaurants and stores, as well as recreational fishermen, across the region. These were major reasons why regional environmental organizations were so opposed to this plan from the moment it was announced.

"It became clear to us that the permitting process would be a lengthy one and that it was in the best interest of DuPont and New Jersey not to proceed," said Anthony Farina, a DuPont spokesman.

U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-Haddon Heights, also led the charge against bringing the VX to South Jersey and marshaled other lawmakers in the region, such as U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-Union City, Gov. Jon Corzine, and lawmakers from Pennsylvania and Delaware, to the cause.

Friday, Andrews commended DuPont for opting to kill the plan to bring VX to the region.

We're glad that all the pleas from lawmakers, environmental groups, citizens and others have paid off. This was an idea that never made sense and shouldn't have taken three years for Army and DuPont officials to see as a bad idea. But the important thing for the region is that the Delaware River and bay will not become a dumping ground for dangerous substances.