News
Bayshore towns host nerve gas disposal
meetings
By DANIEL WALSH Staff Writer, (856) 794-5111
Published: Wednesday,
March 15, 2006
MAURICE RIVER TOWNSHIP
-- A chemical company that is considering treating a chemical weapon's wastewater
byproduct in Salem County will answer questions on the plan at public meetings
in two Bayshore towns.
Township Committee here will host on Thursday a trio of DuPont and U.S.
Army officials, who will explain a plan to treat a wastewater byproduct of
VX nerve gas disposal at DuPont's plant in Deepwater, Salem County. On March
23, the three officials will appear before the Commercial Township Committee.
The stops are part of an 18-month effort in which DuPont and the Army have
tried to fight misinformation on the plan, DuPont spokesman Anthony Farina
said.
Under the Army's plan, VX, a gas capable of quickly killing an adult after
exposure to a pinhead-sized droplet, would be destroyed at a weapons depot
in Newport, Ind., as part of a broad military effort to eliminate chemical
agent stockpiles.
DuPont has been seeking a lucrative contract with the U.S. Army to destroy
as much as 4 million gallons of hydrolysate, a byproduct of the deactivation
process, at its ChamberWorks wastewater treatment facility in Deepwater.
Farina said that none of the hydrolysate will be contaminated with VX, which
means the actual nerve agent will never reach New Jersey.
"We have pledged that we won't accept any VX (contaminated) wastewater, and
the Army has said they won't send any," Farina said. "They can't. It's against
the law."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency dropped its opposition to the plan
last month, while a Centers for Disease Control review continues.
Many have concerns, however, about dropping the hydrolysate's neutralized
wastewater into the Delaware River. The plan has drawn broad opposition
from environmental groups, local government officials, a union representing
employees at the Deepwater plant and U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-1.
Cape May freeholders oppose the plan, saying the wastewater could hurt the
region's fishing industry as well as the tourism trade. Officials in Lower
Township, Cape May County, cited the same concerns in their opposition.
Commercial and Maurice River townships aren't any different. When DuPont
representatives called with an offer to explain the plan, the answer was yes.
Many are concerned about effects to the Delaware Bay oyster beds, located
several miles downriver from Deepwater.
"They asked if we had any concerns, and naturally, with the oyster beds,
we did," Commercial Township Committeeman George Garrison said.
DuPont chemical engineer Todd Owens, Deepwater plant manager John Strait
and U.S. Army Col. Jesse Barber, project manager for Alternative Technologies
and Approaches program at the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, will speak
at the two township meetings.
Farina said DuPont is willing to send representatives to community meetings
anywhere in southern New Jersey. People simply have to ask. He said people
have a lot of misinformation about the plan.
"It's just strange that they want to keep this place pristine, but they want
to put nerve gas in our rivers," Maurice River Township Committeeman Norm
Frankel said. "We're having enough problems with the oyster industry and fishing
industry. To put this stuff in the river is pretty strange."
Staff writer W.F. Keough contributed to this report.
To e-mail Daniel Walsh at The Press: DWalsh@pressofac.com