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As a waterman in the Delaware Bay, I wanted to offer my opinion on the proposal to bring wastewater from the Army's VX destruction process in Indiana for treatment at DuPont's plant in Salem County. It is an opinion shared by many of my fellow watermen.
Until now, we have not been very vocal on this matter, preferring to wait until the release of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. Now that the report is out, it seems clear the CDC believes this project can be done safely.
While the easy thing to do would be to just keep saying no, no matter how much proof there is, I don't think that's the responsible thing to do.
I've heard people say things such as, "This stuff is in Indiana now, let's just leave it there" or "How about dumping it in the ocean?"
It is important to remember these weapons were not built to protect just Indiana. They were built to protect the whole country. We all bear a responsibility for getting rid of them in the best way possible. To me, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new treatment plant in Indiana is that much more money that is not spent on our men and women in harm's way in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world.
As for dumping it in the ocean, we've done things like that in the past. I do not want to go back to those days. When you live on the Delaware Bay, as we do, you learn there is a difference between what you read in the papers and what is really happening on the water.
When we see something going on that we believe will harm our livelihood, we are the first ones to stand up and fight. I don't think this is one of those cases.
VX is scary stuff, no doubt about it. But we all know scary stuff can be made safe. Most of the medicines we take are dangerous, too -- if the dose is high enough.
But you can't always judge a book by its cover. I think this is one of those times.
BOB BATEMAN Port NorrisPublished: September 10. 2006 3:10AM