12th November 2004
DuPont Co. has reported a potential breakthrough method for controlling some types of wastewater pollution, spurred in part by public objections to a plan for treating chemical weapons disposal waste at a company complex along the Delaware River.
Nicholas C. Fanandakis, a DuPont vice president, said the process causes some phosphorus-based compounds to settle out of wastewater before it is discharged to the environment. One objection to the chemical weapons disposal plan was that those would be harmful to the river.
The process still is undergoing testing and patent reviews. If proven, the method could help DuPont remove phosphorus-related chemicals from wastewater the Army wants to ship from a nerve agent disposal plant in Newport, Ind., to the company's industrial wastewater plant at the Chambers Works in Deepwater, N.J.
Company representatives have briefed state and regional regulators on both sides of the river in recent weeks, although details about the full process have yet to become public.
VX ranks among the world's deadliest chemical weapons, potentially lethal if even a tiny droplet touches the skin. The Army has denied that any detectable amounts of VX will survive after processing through a custom-built neutralization factory in Newport.