Dayton Daily News
May 21, 2003

Rally takes stand against nerve agent; More than 100 protest in Jefferson Twp.

By Margo Rutledge Kissell
e-mail address: margo_kissell@coxohio.com
Dayton Daily News

JEFFERSON TWP., Montgomery County | Jim Lucas, 71, drove from his home in Huber Heights to a vacant lot in Drexel on Tuesday evening to join a protest against disposal of a by-product of the destruction of VX nerve agent in Jefferson Twp.

Lucas, who clutched a "NO VX" sign, is a peace activist and member of the Sept. 11 Coalition.

"We're familiar with VX. It's a dangerous substance," he said. "I thought I'd come out and support people here."

More than 100 people attended the rally at West Third Street and Cherokee Avenue and then marched the short distance to the Perma-Fix Environmental Services Inc. plant, where they briefly stood in a long line holding their signs.

Jefferson Twp. resident Gwendolyn Crutcher, 41, held one that read, "We Don't Want Hydrolysate at Perma-Fix."

She lives about a mile from the plant, and although she has no children, said she is "fighting for the future of the children."

This wasn't the first rally for Crutcher, a member of Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons. The grassroots group is opposed to a plan by the Army to award Perma-Fix a $9 million contract to dispose of 300,000 gallons of hydrolysate, the waste product from VX.

The hydrolysate would be shipped 195 miles from the Army's VX storage in Newport, Ind., starting in October.

During the demonstration, Ellis Jacobs, an attorney representing the citizens group, read a letter to them from U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville.

Turner wrote that in a phone conversation with Army Assistant Secretary Claude Bolton last week, the congressman relayed his "continued disappointment with the Army's lack of response to many of our public safety and health concerns, as well as their failure to clearly define what constitutes 'public acceptance' or 'rejection' in their process."

The Army contract requires the company to maintain public support for the efforts.

"I once again called on the Army to honor the will of this community and its elected representatives, who have demonstrated unwavering public opposition to the transport and disposal of chemical nerve agent VX in our community," Turner wrote.

As protesters walked along Cherokee Avenue returning from the plant to the vacant lot, sheriff's deputies arrived to help clear a path for a Perma-Fix tanker truck. The large vehicle had been unable to get through because of parked cars on both sides of the narrow roadway.

Jacobs said it underscored the group's concern about large trucks that would transport chemicals through the residential neighborhood.

"It's one of the issues we've been pointing out," he said.

Contact Margo Kissell at margo_kissell@coxohio.com or 225-2094.