The state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control issued an order Wednesday to stop a Sussex County trucker from stockpiling and transporting processed clam-shells until all military ordnance has been removed from the shells.
DNREC secretary John A. Hughes said the order against Perry Butler of Greenwood is necessary to protect residents "from coming into contact with disposed military ordnance that may continue to be embedded in processed clamshells."
Workers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been sifting through Butler's stockpile of shells for the past month and recovered seven corroded military explosives, Corps project manager Robert Williams Jr. said
"We're doing each pile as it comes in," said Robert Williams Jr., project manager with the corps. "We're recording the data and it's getting less and less."
The cease and desist order comes a week after Sea Watch International Ltd. was fined $9,000 by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for serious safety violations at its Milford clam-processing plant, where unexploded ordnance has been recovered.
Butler picks up discarded shells from the clam-processing plant, crushes them and sells them to poultry farmers and other customers to pave driveways.
DNREC Capt. William P. McDaniel II, operations supervisor for air and waste management enforcement, said Butler has been ordered not to sell any clamshells directly to customers unless the shells have been screened and determined to be safe.
Penalties for violating an order range from $2,500 to $25,000, McDaniel said.
DNREC joined forces with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in August to investigate the source of at least 100 vintage devices turning up in clamshell-paved driveways in Kent and Sussex counties.
The investigation was prompted by a July 19 incident at Dover Air Force Base in which three bomb technicians were hospitalized after coming into contact with mustard gas while disarming a device found in a Bridgeville driveway.
The shells originated in loads of clams dredged from the ocean floor off New Jersey, where military explosives were dumped following World Wars I and II.
Butler, who said his business has been slowed by the investigation, said he can continue to sell the shells as long as the Army has gone through them to ensure they are free of ordnance.
"Nobody wants to buy them because everybody keeps calling up saying I'm selling shells from Sea Watch," Butler said.
The cleanup effort could cost the government as much as $20 million.
Williams said plans are under way to finalize recommendations on how to eliminate the shells at the plant. The recommendations should be implemented by December.
"Once that's done, then Perry's on his own," he said.
Plant officials plan to meet with OSHA Friday to discuss how to screen for ordnance.
Contact Terri Sanginiti at 324-2771 or sanginiti@delawareonline.com.