DuPont pulls out
of Army VX deal
By
DANIEL WALSH Staff Writer, (856) 794-5111
A U.S. Army plan for disposing of a
lethal
nerve agent's waste into the Delaware River died Friday when DuPont
pulled out of the project.
DuPont announced it would not treat the VX nerve agent's waste water
because the legal-approval process had become too "lengthy and
arduous." The company required a permit modification from the New Jersey
Department of Environmental Protection to treat the waste, and there
was no guarantee of receiving it, considering the opposition of New
Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who dubbed DuPont's pullout a "victory for
the people of New Jersey." Meanwhile, the Army and DuPont faced increasing pressure from a
lawsuit
filed last month by environmental groups and a U.S. Government
Accountability Office review of the proposal due Jan. 26. A DuPont
spokesman said neither played a part in the company's decision. "We had already invested three years in the project," DuPont
spokesman
Anthony Farina said. "We still needed to put in the permit
modification. We wouldn't know how long it would take." The question remains as to what will be done with the VX wastewater,
known as hydrolysate. The Army has chemically neutralized 36 percent of
its VX stockpile at a chemical weapons depot in Newport, Ind., in
compliance with an international treaty calling for the destruction of
chemical weapons. An Army spokesman said the military would consider
other on-site and off-site options for disposing of the wastewater
byproduct. Many, including Indiana residents, have pushed for on-site
disposal. "At some point, something will be done with the hydrolysate," said
Mickey Morales, spokesman for the Army's Chemical Materials Agency. "We
are committed to destroying all the stockpile and complying with the
treaty." The bipartisan southern New Jersey congressional delegation that
opposed the Army's plan likely will maintain an oversight role in that
effort, as all three sit on the U.S. House of Representatives Armed
Services Committee. U.S. Reps. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, Jim Saxton, R-3rd
and Rob Andrews, D-1st, created numerous hurdles for the Army by
successfully demanding reviews by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the GAO. The EPA
and CDC dropped initial objections to the project. Andrews said he anticipated the GAO review would be critical of the
Army's proposal, although Farina speculated just the opposite. Andrews
cited a National Academy of Sciences study from several years ago that
found the DuPont treatment option to be the least preferred of about 10
other disposal methods. "From the very beginning, the Army's plan to ship this waste
off-site
was a recipe for disaster," said Craig Williams of the Kentucky-based
Chemical Weapons Working Group. The lawsuit filed last month by several environmental groups,
including
the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Chemical Weapons Working Group,
raised another roadblock. The groups claimed the Army plan was illegal,
citing a 1994 amendment to the Defense Authorization Act of 1986, which
says the secretary of defense "may not transport any chemical munition
that constitutes part of the chemical-weapons stockpile out of the
state in which that munition is located." Army and DuPont officials had claimed all along that the hydrolysate
would contain no active VX, but neither has a way to prove the claim.
Existing technology can only measure VX down to 14 parts per billion in
water. For many, that was sufficient. Rutgers University's Haskin Shellfish
Research Laboratory, for example, deemed that the project would have
minimal effect on marine populations in the Delaware Bay. Some who
initially opposed the project, such as Heislerville fisherman George
Kumor, changed their minds after reading the EPA and CDC reports. "What changed my mind was that they were breaking down the (VX) and
turning it into something else," said Kumor, who had strongly
criticized the project during a March public meeting in Port Norris.
"This whole conflict came down to ignorance and personal agendas." In fact, many misunderstood facets of the project, often
mischaracterizing VX as "nerve gas"; it's actually a viscous liquid. Many did understand the basic concepts of the Army's proposal,
however.
Government regulators in Ohio had previously turned down the Army's
first effort to treat the waste in Dayton, Ohio, after overwhelming
criticism by local residents and biologists. Likewise, the Army
proposal drew broad opposition throughout the Delaware Valley. "Our water is bad enough as it is," said Joe Scarpinato, who runs a
catering business in Bridgeton. "We don't need any more junk in it."