Defense Environment Alert 10/21/03

Defense Environment Alert
October 21, 2003

ARMY CONTRACTOR ENDS PLANS TO TREAT VX WASTE AT OHIO PLANT

The Army's contractor at its Indiana chemical weapons stockpile site has instructed a waste treatment subcontractor in Ohio to halt plans to treat secondary waste from neutralized VX agent, after facing several obstacles to shipping the waste there. The stop work order, which effectively eliminates the Ohio facility as an alternative disposal site, follows an announcement Oct. 7 by county officials in Ohio that they planned to deny a permit for the subcontractor to discharge the treated waste products into the county's wastewater system.

The Army originally planned to neutralize the bulk VX agent at Newport, IN, using a sodium hydroxide process, and also treat the resulting hydrolysate on site. But following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Army explored ways to speed agent disposal, including using a subcontractor to treat the hydrolysate off site.

The Army's decision last December to ship the hydrolysate to a Perma-Fix facility in Dayton, OH, was controversial among residents and elected officials there who worried the city would become a dumping ground for chemical weapons waste (Defense Environment Alert, June 3, p6). Residents also raised environmental justice concerns over the location of the Perma-Fix facility in a predominantly poor and minority community and filed a lawsuit in July, alleging the Army failed to analyze the environmental impacts of treating the hydrolysate in Dayton (Defense Environment Alert, Aug. 26, p9).

An Army spokesman says that while it was the contractor, Parsons Infrastructure & Technology Group Inc., who issued the stop work order, the Army believes this is a prudent step.

In an Oct. 14 letter to the Newport Citizens Advisory Commission, the Parsons Newport site manager says the "decision was reached after the Montgomery County Commissioners hearing on 7 October 2003 where it became evident that constraints related to Perma-Fix's operational permit with Montgomery County would preclude the use of Perma-Fix."

The Dayton Daily News quoted Montgomery County Sanitary Engineer Jim Brueggeman explaining the county could not issue the necessary permit to Perma-Fix "given the considerable number of unanswered questions, incomplete, missing or inadequate data, apparent treatment process deficiencies, and the risks -- health and ecological -- involved."

Parsons said it is working closely with the Army to evaluate options for the treatment of the neutralized VX. The Army spokesman says the military is "looking at any and all options" but is not prepared to discuss those options now. Last month Parsons announced it was seeking proposals from general subcontractors to design, fabricate and install storage tanks at Newport, which would allow Parsons to begin neutralizing the VX and then store it until a final disposal option is determined.

Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), whose district includes Dayton, hailed the stop work order "as a huge victory for the Dayton community," but says he will continue to monitor the situation closely to secure guarantees that this issue will not return to the Dayton community, according to a statement from his office.

Turner announced Oct. 8 that the Government Reform subcommittee on national security, emerging threats & international relations would convene an Oct. 22 oversight hearing in Dayton to examine Army contracting practices in the chemical weapons demilitarization programs. He says he still plans to go forward with the field hearing "to give the Dayton community the opportunity to enter into the public record the issues they have faced throughout this process."