NEWS

TOP NJ/REGION

The Army's plan to destroy its stockpile of the world's most powerful chemical weapon - so lethal a single drop can kill a man - was derailed at least temporarily Friday by acting Governor Codey.

The plan called for 1,269 tons of VX nerve agent to be destroyed at the Army's Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana. The resulting caustic wastewater, called VX hydrolysate, would then be hauled to DuPont's secure environmental treatment facility in Deepwater, where it would be treated again and dumped into the Delaware River.

Citing the "potential to affect a river that is not only a precious natural resource," but also an important part of New Jersey's and Delaware's economies, Codey directed the state Department of Environmental Protection to forbid the DuPont plant from treating the VX hydrolysate. He also released a letter to Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey expressing the state's "continuing opposition" to the proposal.

Codey's letter comes on the heels of an April 6 report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning that trace amounts of VX might remain after it undergoes the chemical process meant to destroy it. Those amounts would not be harmful to humans, the report said, but "may not be protective of aquatic organisms."

"I am particularly troubled by the CDC's inability to conclude that the wastewater leaving the Newport facility will be free of VX, or even that the wastewater will contain no detectable amount of VX," Codey wrote.

The Army is required by treaty to destroy the nerve agent this decade, and neutralization has already begun. The VX has been stored at the Newport depot, 70 miles west of Indianapolis, since it was manufactured in the 1960s. It has never been used.

In his letter to the secretary of the Army, Codey said he was "deeply concerned about the plans to transport thousands of truckloads of the VX wastewater through New Jersey." Codey urged the Army to use a disposal site closer to Newport, or use the Newport plant itself.

Calls to the Army for comment were not immediately returned Friday.

"The Army's proposal is flawed, and should be abandoned, not revised," DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell said in a statement. "If it is revised, DEP will conduct a thorough review of any new information concerning the treatment of VX hydrolysate at the DuPont plant and require a comprehensive public comment process."

VX, a liquid the consistency of motor oil, is the deadliest nerve agent ever made. Just 10 milligrams can kill - making it 170 times deadlier than sarin. It has never been used in battle, but an accidental release in Utah in 1968 killed 6,000 sheep.

DuPont spokesman Anthony R. Farina said DuPont "would not move forward until all stakeholder concerns are satisfied."

Farina added that Codey's action didn't take into account a new technology DuPont has developed for removing phosphorus from water, a procedure required by the VX neutralization process. DuPont scientists met with government officials recently to demonstrate the new technology, Farina said. The CDC and the federal Environmental Protection Agency are reviewing that proposal.

The DuPont secure environmental treatment site, on the Delaware River in Salem County, would continue to treat 15 million gallons of industrial wastewater every day, Farina said.

E-mail: ivry@northjersey.com