By JEFF MONTGOMERY
Staff reporter
05/08/2004

VX nerve agent disposal waste identified as "waste from cleaning of laboratory equipment" was treated at the DuPont Co.'s Chambers Works plant in the mid-1990s, according to federal government documents and interviews with Army and company officials.

In tests, the DuPont plant in Deepwater, N.J., processed 7,000 pounds, or 800 gallons, of neutralized VX byproducts between 1994 and 1996, the documents show.

Regulators in New Jersey and Delaware said they were unaware of those tests, or of two smaller disposal tests in subsequent years.

DuPont is seeking an Army contract to treat up to 4 million gallons of caustic wastewater from the neutralization of a 1,269-ton stockpile of VX nerve agent in Newport, Ind. Military and company officials have insisted that none of the VX, one of the world's deadliest chemical weapons, will survive the neutralization.

The governors of Delaware and New Jersey have said they oppose the Army plan to send caustic wastewater from the Newport VX stockpile to Deepwater, citing state findings that the majority of at least two chemicals from the wastewater will pass untreated to the Delaware River.

The Army's disposal of the weapons waste at the DuPont plant in the mid-1990s went unnoticed by regulators because of a change in the labeling of the waste, based on accounts in government documents and interviews with Army officials on Friday. Officials at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland "delisted" the wastes - removing a rating that required separate handling and record-keeping. Then they mixed the liquids in with other waste broadly identified as coming from "cleaning of laboratory equipment."

Army officials said the delisting was permitted under Maryland regulations. They noted the wastes were still managed as hazardous material.

DuPont said it followed normal procedures in handling the waste.

"We take this type of material, lab waste, decontamination waste, all the time,'' said Todd Owens, a DuPont treatment plant chemical engineer. "For us it was very likely a routine lab waste shipment.''

David Small, deputy secretary of Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, said, "It raises some questions." Small said the Chambers Works plant is a special concern to regulators because of its large and variable streams of industrial wastes and discharges to the river.

New Jersey officials said they are looking into the reports.

DuPont's new bid to treat the neutralized nerve agent, or hydrolysate, is drawing regulators' attention to the type and volume of hazardous waste deliveries arriving at DuPont's Secure Environmental Treatment Unit. The plant ranks as one of the nation's top sources of toxic water pollution.

"At this point, we need to know more about all of the activities involving Chambers Works," DNREC's John Hughes said. "There's going to be a lot of energy put into this. This isn't going to be glossed over; we'll be working with [New Jersey regulators] - it's as simple as that."

Environmental groups said the fact that disposal of VX wastewater went unnoticed underscores weaknesses in the regulation of industrial pollution.

"I think clearly they're playing a shell game, and the way they treated this VX waste and casually dumped it is an abuse of the process," said Alan Muller, who represents the environmental group Green Delaware.

"I think this goes to the heart of their credibility," said Maya K. van Rossum, who directs the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, a multistate environmental group. "They've been using and abusing the system in ways that hoodwink residents and agency officials."

When questioned, DuPont and Army officials initially denied that 7,000 pounds of VX wastewater were treated at Deepwater. They subsequently said the material was not listed as chemical weapons waste by the time it reached the plant. Details about the amount of dilution and chemicals in the waste treated at Deepwater were unavailable Friday.

DuPont describes its wastewater plant as North America's largest commercial industrial wastewater plant, a 47.8-million-gallon treatment-for-hire operation that already handles most of New Jersey's industrial wastes.

DuPont already has a $30 million contract to treat caustic wastewater from a 1,600-ton stockpile of mustard gas, or blister agent, at Aberdeen.

DuPont's testing of VX wastewater disposal in the mid-1990s came as the company was under consideration for a contract to dispose of the weapons waste.

A 1996 report by the National Research Council, which is part of the National Academy of Sciences, noted that Aberdeen's neutralization of VX nerve agents from Newport "yielded large volumes" of hydrolysate for wastewater treatment plant testing. "The treatment at this facility seems to have been satisfactory," the council report said.

A separate study by a consulting firm for the Army in 2001 identified Deepwater as the site. It noted that DuPont broke off consideration of the treatment contract in 1996 because of concern over public objection to odors. DuPont later decided to seek the contract, the study said.

"Changes in the management, potential for higher revenues [in the millions of dollars], and more effective public outreach efforts were some of the reasons by the DuPont representative for their change in position," the report said.

DuPont's Owens offered a different reason for the turnabout.

"In my opinion, what changed was Sept. 11, when they came and asked us," Owens said in a reference to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Army officials have said that potential terrorist threats to chemical weapon stockpiles warranted acceleration of the destruction process and use of DuPont's treatment plant.