Lawsuit filed to block VX waste transfer
Environmental groups don't want Army to ship chemicals to N.J.
Several environmental and citizen groups asked the federal courts to block Army shipments of chemical weapon disposal waste to a Delaware River treatment plant, saying the plan threatens both people and the river.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network and six allied groups filed the action in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., while officials await a potentially critical Government Accountability Office report on the project.
Under the Army proposal, the DuPont Co. would treat caustic wastewater from a VX disposal plant at an Army weapons depot in Newport, Ind.
The complaint includes a claim that federal law bans the transportation of partially treated chemical weapons across state lines. It also says the Army failed to fully comply with environmental impact study requirements.
"The law is very clear that all chemical weapons are supposed to be destroyed in the state where they are located," said Tracy Carluccio, a member of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. "They're not supposed to be transported out of state."
Other parties in the case include The American Littoral Society, Chemical Weapons Working Group, Pennsylvania Clean Water Action, Delaware Audubon Society, New Jersey Environmental Federation and New Jersey Audubon Society.
Contractors already have neutralized about a third of the 1,269-ton stockpile. However, waste from the plant have been held in storage pending final reviews and approval of federal and state permits.
Jeff Lindblad, a spokesman for the Army Chemical Materials Agency, said he was unable to comment on the lawsuit late Wednesday. He said the Army had followed all requirements for the project, including environmental impact study mandates. But he also said the military was prepared to head in a different direction if required.
"If we were not to go with DuPont, we would consider our options at that time," Lindblad said. "I'm not going to get specific as to what it is we would look at."
DuPont spokesman Anthony Farina said that company officials have not reviewed the lawsuit. He added that DuPont's plant would treat only neutralized wastewater from Newport -- a liquid that the Army has said would be free of all detectable VX molecules. The facility is located in Deepwater, N.J., near the foot of the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
Studies by the Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that the DuPont treatment plan "can be completed safely and effectively with no adverse impact on the environment or the community," Farina said in a statement.
The company overhauled its treatment process last year after Delaware officials pointed out that DuPont's commercial wastewater plant would have little effect on some potentially hazardous chemicals left by the breakdown of VX liquids. Those chemicals would have passed virtually untreated into the Delaware River.
The lawsuit alleged that researchers failed to consider potential seizure of the wastewater and treatment with chemicals that could reform VX -- an omission described as "particularly glaring considering the ostensible impetus for hastened off-site treatment was the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001."
The Army reported earlier this year that the DuPont project would cut five years off disposal schedules and save taxpayers up to $347 million. Members of New Jersey's congressional delegation called for a federal review of the findings.
Contact Jeff Montgomery at 678-4277 or jmontgomery@delawareonline.com.’Ä¢Delaware Riverkeeper Network
’Ä¢The American Littoral Society
’Ä¢Chemical Weapons Working Group
’Ä¢Pennsylvania Clean Water Action
’Ä¢Delaware Audubon Society
’Ä¢New Jersey Environmental Federation
’Ä¢New Jersey Audubon Society
Requests federal courts block U.S. Army shipments of chemical weapon disposal waste to a Delaware River treatment plant
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