Timeline of DuPont's VX plans
Posted
Friday, January 5, 2007
Timeline of the proposal to dispose of VX waste in Deepwater N.J.
Timeline of the proposal to dispose of VX waste in Deepwater N.J.
January 2004
DuPont says it is considering a proposal to accept and treat hydrolysate, which is the neutralized VX nerve agent byproduct, in its wastewater treatment plant in Deepwater, N.J.. The VX nerve agent resides in a stockpile at a U.S. Army base in Indiana, where the neutralization has begun.
April 2004
’Ä¢ Delaware's Senate approves a resolution urging the U.S. Army to abandon a plan to send nerve agent disposal wastes to a treatment plant near the Delaware Memorial Bridge in New Jersey. Backers of the resolution called the 17-0 vote a clear signal of community disapproval. Delaware lawmakers acted the same day a letter from eight Delaware and New Jersey congressmen was made public asking the Centers for Disease Control for a formal review of the treatment project. Legislators said CDC comments were not made public last month during Army-sponsored community meetings.
’Ä¢ An Army report estimates that taxpayers will save at least $347 million under a plan to treat chemical-weapon disposal waste at a DuPont Co. plant along the Delaware River. Military officials developed the cost-benefit analysis after Congress called for proof that the hotly contested plan was cheaper than other methods for destroying the VX nerve agent waste at the site of a neutralization complex in Newport, Ind. Army officials said the same study found the VX stockpile would be destroyed 57 months sooner if contractors use DuPont's Chambers Works industrial wastewater plant in Deepwater, N.J., for final disposal of the broken-down VX.
May 2004
The Army began destroying a huge stockpile of deadly VX nerve agent in Indiana. The governors of Delaware and New Jersey urge the Army to abandon plans for shipping the neutralized VX wastewater to New Jersey in favor of disposal closer to the Newport Chemical Agency Disposal Facility in Indiana. Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and environmental groups raise concerns about the effect of trace chemicals on aquatic life, as well as the possibility that VX residues could survive treatment.
March 2005
DuPont Co. claims success in capturing or eliminating 95 percent to 99 percent of two potentially harmful compounds in a chemical weapon disposal byproduct the company wants to treat in its New Jersey plant and discharge into the Delaware River.
September 2005
A multi-state coalition of environmental and citizen groups urge the Army to abandon its plan. Opponents ’Äì from groups in Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky and New Jersey ’Äì said the Army plan would expose the public to needless hazards during highway shipments from Indiana to DuPont's plant. They favor keeping the entire disposal operation in one spot.
October 2006
Southern New Jersey lawmakers sidetrack Army plans to send chemical weapons waste to Chambers Works. An amendment to a defense bill assures the Government Accountability Office will review the proposal before the Army can begin shipments.
January 2007
DuPont abandons its plan, citing a difficult fight for approval.