Mar. 26 - It's not likely the wastewater created from the destruction of the nerve agent VX at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana will be shipped through East Central Illinois, an engineer with the DuPont chemical company said on Wednesday.

There are five proposed routes for transporting hydrolysate, the caustic liquid produced by the neutralization of VX, from the Army's Newport facility to DuPont's Secure Environmental Treatment plant in Deepwater, N.J.

One route entails trucking the liquid westward along interstate highways into East Central Illinois and north to Chicago, where it would be shipped via rail to the East Coast.

"Most likely it's not going to impact you guys," said Todd Owens, chemical engineer with DuPont. The highway-railway route through Illinois would involve more handling than any other proposed route, he said.

"Because of that multiple handing, we didn't select it as the preferred transportation route," Owens said.

DuPont's first choice is to truck the liquid northeast through Indiana, across northern Ohio and central Pennsylvania.

About 2 million to 4 million gallons of hydrolysate is expected to be produced at the Newport plant as the Army neutralizes the nerve agent. The whole process could take two to four years to complete. That translates to a total of 3,000 to 7,000 trucks, or two truckloads per day leaving Newport for New Jersey, Owens said.

In early March, DuPont released transportation and treatability reports in which the firm detailed plans for handling and treating the wastewater, which is a caustic substance that can cause skin burns.

The Army has not awarded a contract to DuPont yet, said Terry Arthur, public affairs officer with Newport Chemical Depot.

DuPont is currently focused on soliciting public comments on its plans, Owens said.

In Indiana, the Army will hold a public information session about the destruction process and transportation plans. The session will begin at 5 p.m. March 31 at South Vermillion High School, 770 W. Wildcat Drive, Clinton, Ind.

Meanwhile, over at the Newport plant, the Army is ratcheting up its efforts to begin the neutralization or destruction process.

Construction of the $500 million facility where the process will take place has been completed, Arthur said.

Staff have begun a "systemization" process, which involves testing the facility's computer software, valves, pipes and other systems.

"Not only are we testing the system to make sure it works, but we intentionally make it fail to test the system's response," Arthur said.

On April 21, the Army will conduct an Immediate Response Force Exercise, which will simulate a VX incident at Newport.

The exercise will involve federal, state and local emergency management agencies in Indiana and Illinois.

"Because we border the county in Indiana that has Newport, we already have plans in place in how to respond to an incident," said Ed Miller, director of the Vermilion County Emergency Management Agency.

His staff, along with area volunteer firefighters and emergency room personnel, have received specialized training from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Maryland, including how to prepare for an incident, should one occur, and how to properly decontaminate someone exposed to the nerve agent.

If the Army did choose to transport the wastewater through Illinois, Miller said he expected he would have further discussions with the Army and DuPont to find out if they needed to draft additional preparedness plans.

Hydrolysate "is just another wastewater, basically," Miller said.

The wastewater is a water-based mixture containing 80 percent water, plus thiolamine, sodium ethyl methylphosphonate, sodium hydroxide, sodium methyl phosphonate, ethanol, diisopropylamino ethyl disulfide and diisopropylamine, according to the DuPont report.

According to the DuPont Web site, exposure to hydrolysate could result in skin burns, and the material exudes a "skunky" odor.