Defense Environment Alert
an exclusive biweekly report on defense
policies for cleanup, compliance and pollution prevention
Vol. 12, No. 1--January 13, 2004
ARMY EXPECTS NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS FROM TRANSPORTING WASTE
Transporting liquid waste from a chemical weapons neutralization facility
in Indiana to a commercial waste treatment plant in New Jersey will have
no significant adverse environmental impacts, according to an Army draft
revised finding of no significant impact (FONSI).
The document updates a 2002 environmental assessment and specifically addresses
transportation from the Newport Chemical Depot to the DuPont Chambers Works
Plant because the New Jersey facility has now been identified as a potential
treatment, storage and disposal facility (TSDF) for the liquid effluent,
or hydrolysate, from the neutralization of VX nerve agent at Newport. Earlier
plans to ship the waste to an Ohio site were aborted following a community
uproar over the project.
"Evaluation of transportation routes show that there is not expected to be
an increased risk to the public or environment from transporting the hydrolysate
from Newport, Indiana to Deepwater, New Jersey, and DuPont has the necessary
permits to transport and dispose of the liquid effluent," the draft revised
FONSI says. Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA. com. Seepage 2
for details.
At issue is the treatment of secondary waste from the neutralization of more
than 1,200 tons of VX agent, which are currently stored at Newport. The Army
originally planned to treat the effluent on site, but after the Sept.11 terrorist
attacks, the Army moved to explore off-site treatment options. Local officials
in Ohio last year thwarted a plan to send the hydrolysate for treatment at
a Dayton, OH, facility, in large part because of vocal opposition from residents
near the treatment plant (Defense Environment Alert, Oct. 21, 2003, p5).
Now the Army is considering sending the hydrolysate for treatment at the
New Jersey DuPont facility, the world's largest commercial and industrial
wastewater treatment plant.
Late last year, the Army announced it is changing the formula for VX neutralization,
in order to eliminate problems in meeting agent destruction levels. But the
formula change - starting with only 8 percent VX by weight instead of 33
percent - will also increase the amount of secondary waste produced by the
neutralization facility and could prolong the weapons disposal process (Defense
Environment Alert, Dec. 30, 2003, p8).
The 33 percent formula would produce approximately 900,000 gallons of effluent,
while an 8 percent formula would create about 3.6 million gallons of hydrolysate,
according to the transportation analysis accompanying the draft revised FONSI.
Assuming that each tanker truck load required for transporting the liquid
effluent to an off-site TSDF will contain 4,000 gallons, the resulting waste
from the 33 percent formula would require 225 trips, while the effluent from
the 8 percent formula would require 900 trips, the analysis says.
Effluent from the 33 percent processing would be considered a corrosive and
ignitable waste under the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act. But the
8 percent hydrolysate would have a lower organic content and thus only be
considered corrosive, the analysis says.
The analysis considered two routes, both on Interstate or other major highways.
The first route is shorter, but the second route goes through less populated
areas.
The public connnent period on the draft revised FONSI ends in the middle
of this month.