Defense Environment Alert 12/30/03

Defense Environment Alert

an exclusive biweekly report on defense policies for cleanup, compliance and pollution prevention

Vol. 11, No. 26--December 30, 2003

ARMY CHANGING APPROACH TO VX NEUTRALIZATION AT INDIANA SITE

Army officials at a chemical weapons site in Indiana are planning to change the formula for neutralizing VX nerve agent. The new plan is expected to eliminate problems in meeting agent destruction levels but will also increase the amount of secondary waste produced by the neutralization facility and could prolong the weapons disposal process.

The Newport, IN, stockpile, consisting entirely of ton containers of VX, will be destroyed using a sodium hydroxide neutralization process. The Army is still determining how it will treat the resulting hydrolysate, which is considered a hazardous waste. It has not set a firm start date for neutralization to begin (Defense Environment Alert, Dec. 2, p10).

Originally, the Army planned to use a mixture, by weight, of 33 percent VX and 67 percent sodium hydroxide and water in each reactor batch. But the Army has had difficulty meeting Army specifications for VX destruction using this formula in test batches at an Army facility in Maryland, Army sources say. And now the military is looking to begin neutralizing the VX agent at lower concentrations.

"By reducing the amount of VX in each batch to 8, 12, or 16 percent, we reduce the organic content of the hydrolysate," Jeff Brubaker, the Army's Newport site project manager said in an email to Defense Environment Alert. "As a result, we would achieve reliable 'clearance' of the hydrolysate for shipment to a commercial treatment/disposal facility."

The Army has committed that it will ship only hydrolysate where VX concentrations are below 20 parts per billion, he said. "Beginning neutralization operations with a reduced VX load also would allow us to ramp up operations slowly, refine the analytical method and possibly allow us to eventually increase loading to accelerate operations," Brubaker said.

Under the 33 percent formula, the Army predicts it would create I million gallons of hydrolysate. But under the new plan, the amount of hydrolysate could double, triple or even quadruple, he said. "For instance, if shipped to a commercial facility for final treatment and disposal, it could mean several hundred tanker loads."