Ohio News Network
October 14, 2003

Company Won’t Dispose Of Nerve Agent In Dayton Area

by Tom Chansky

A Southwest Ohio company won’t be disposing of a chemical byproduct from a deadly nerve agent at a Dayton-area weapons depot.

Perma-Fix has lost a $9 million contract to dispose of 330,000 gallons of a liquid that is created by the destruction of VX nerve agent.

A Dayton-area citizens group sued the Army earlier this year, seeking to put a stop to the chemical shipment from the Newport Chemical Depot in western Indiana. Parsons Engineering, the main contractor for destroying the nerve agent, had hired Perma-Fix to dispose of the byproduct.

In a company statement, Perma-Fix CEO Dr. Louis Centofanti says his company will continue to pursue disposal contracts, including work to dispose of chemical weapons.

Last week, Montgomery County Sanitary Engineer Jim Brueggeman told the county commission that there are too many unanswered questions, incomplete data and ecological risks in the process. Brueggeman said his office was unable to issue a permit to Perma-Fix to discharge the treated byproducts into the county's wastewater system.

That permit denial blocked Perma-Fix from accepting the Army contract.