THE DAILY TEXANonline
Serving the University of Texas at Austin since 1900

8/24/07
Activists demand end to illegal shipment of deadly nerve gas

Environmental and community activists met at the Capitol Thursday to demand that Gov. Rick Perry stop the shipment of toxic waste from Indiana to Texas. The group of activists accuses the U.S. Army of illegally shipping the byproducts of a deadly nerve gas that they say, when burned, sickens Port Arthur residents and contaminates the air they breathe.

Following a press conference, the four activists and Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, presented the letter to Perry, informing him the Army is breaking the law and that citizens of Port Arthur are being ignored.

"The governor needs to understand his job first is to uphold the law and protect the people," Burnam said.

The byproduct of the deadly VX nerve gas has been transported by truck from a treatment site in Indiana to a Veolia Environmental Services refinery in Port Arthur since April 16, when the refinery opened. Craig Williams, director of Chemical Weapons Working Group, said according to the law, it's illegal to transport chemical weapons across state lines. VX nerve gas could only be considered destroyed after it was incinerated in the Port Arthur facility, according to two Army colonels.

Refineries in Ohio and New Jersey were originally chosen to receive the gas, but there was so much outcry from residents in those states that the gas came to Port Arthur instead.

"The fact the governor of New Jersey issued an order to state police to ban the gas on the New Jersey Turnpike is a dramatic example of how resistant people were in that part of the country to this material," Williams said.

Hilton Kelley, director of Community In-Power and Development Association, lives in Port Arthur and said he watches children suffer as they breathe in the contaminated air.

"One in four kids have to carry a nebulizer, and the elderly have to undergo breathing treatments every night," Kelley said. "It's negligent of our government to bring this chemical to our community to burn it."

Kelley said he tried desperately to urge Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Port Arthur, to assist residents living on the west side of Port Arthur among the refineries, but Kelley said Deshotel has not been fully supportive.

Even though Deshotel has not signed the letter calling for an end to the chemical shipping, 28 other legislators and 15 environmental activist groups have. Deshotel has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to do an investigation of the refinery.

Neil Carman, an air quality expert and former regulatory official of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said the Veolia refinery doesn't have the capability to monitor whether the VX gas materials have been completely combusted or are instead being emitted from their smokestacks. Particles emitted without being burned are even more dangerous to the Port Arthur community because they contain a higher chemical content.

Carman also said he knew many of the field investigators who went into the Veolia factory and other refineries in Port Arthur, and he claims they weren't always conducting thorough inspections.

"I know them, and I've heard their war stories," Carman said. "They've said that if they issue too many citations on refineries, they get their hands slapped."

Williams said Chemical Weapons Working Group, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups have sued the Army to stop the shipments into Texas, but their motion for a preliminary injunction was denied by a federal judge in Indiana on Aug. 3. An appeal has been filed, and the group says it is prepared to take the case to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals if necessary.

Kelley stressed that the issue is real, and Port Arthur residents are tired of being a dumping ground.

"Just because it's not in your backyard today doesn't mean it won't be in your backyard tomorrow," Kelley said.