By JEFF MONTGOMERY
THE NEWS JOURNAL
12/18/2005
An Army nerve agent disposal plant in Newport, Ind., was at full production last week despite continued battling over plans to ship the military site's wastewater to DuPont Co.'s Chambers Works treatment plant in Deepwater, N.J.
Jeff Lindblad, a spokesman for the Army Chemical Material Agency, said the Indiana operation has enough storage tanks to accumulate wastewater from the VX breakdown process for about a year while DuPont awaits permits from federal and state agencies.
The treatment plan drew protests in this region and brought new public
attention to DuPont's Secure Environmental Treatment Unit, a treatment-for-hire
commercial wastewater operation in Deepwater.
DuPont and the Army originally said the plant could easily treat Newport's wastes, but were forced to redesign the operation after Delaware regulators determined that two rare compounds would pass into the Delaware River.
Jane Nogaki, South Jersey representative for the New Jersey Environmental Federation, said DuPont's operation already delivers too many unmonitored and obscure chemicals into the river to allow an addition.
"We don't know the consequences," Nogaki said.
VX ranks among the most toxic substances known, capable of killing if a tiny droplet touches human skin.
Some 1,269 one-ton containers of the deadly liquid have been stored at Newport for decades, and now are slated for destruction under an international treaty.
Contact Jeff Montgomery at 678-4277 or jmontgomery@delawareonline.com.