News

Residents skeptical of nerve agent disposal plan

By DANIEL WALSH Staff Writer, (856) 794-5111
Published: Friday, March 17, 2006

MAURICE RIVER TOWNSHIP -- DuPont and U.S. Army representatives pitched their plan Thursday to dispose of a nerve agent's byproduct along the Delaware River, but local residents weren't having it.

Township officials and local fishermen expressed concerns at a Township Committee meeting that the plan to dispose of neutralized VX nerve agent's byproduct along the Delaware River could hurt the Delaware Bay's fragile oyster industry. DuPont would send treated water into the river about 30 miles upriver from the bay's oyster beds. Several attendees worried that this could harm oyster beds ecologically or damage the industry financially.

"The next time I sit down to a bowl of oyster stew, I'm going to be thinking about whether VX is in it," said Roy Oliver, Maurice River's town clerk. "From the salability standpoint, that could be the nail in the coffin of the oyster industry."

DuPont chemical engineer Todd Owens and U.S. Army Col. Jesse Barber made the trip to Leesburg on Thursday to explain the plan to dispose of neutralized VX nerve agent's wastewater. They say they're fighting wrong information and perception over what's really being done with the VX and its byproduct.

"We can treat it safely," Owens said of the byproduct. "We can transport it safely."

The Army began destroying VX nerve agent, a lethal substance with the texture of motor oil, in May at a weapons depot in Newport, Ind. The neutralization process is based on a similar one successfully used in Aberdeen, Md., to destroy mustard gas, Barber and Owens explained. The VX is put into a chemical reactor in Indiana. The temperature is raised to 194 degrees Fahrenheit. Sodium hydroxide -- or lye -- is added, and the reactor is then mixed at a high level of agitation. The chemical reaction destroys the VX.

The process produces a caustic wastewater byproduct called hydrolysate, which consists of about 85 percent water, four percent sodium hydroxide, and eight or nine percent organic salts. The hydrolysate would be transported by truck to DuPont's treatment plant in Deepwater, Salem County. Here, the organics would be broken down, while the salts and sodium hydroxide are neutralized, they said. What's left would be ordinary freshwater, which would then be dropped into the Delaware River.

The hydrolysate would not be sent if it has any measurable traces of VX in it, Barber said. However, the existing technology can only measure the presence of VX down to 14 parts per billion. DuPont and Army officials feel sure the hydrolysate has no VX in it, but no existing technology can prove that.

Their pitch came just two days after a 300-gallon spill of hydrolysate was contained at the Newport facility, with no damage done, according to the Army's Chemical Materials Agency. The meeting had nothing to do with the spill; DuPont and the Army have pitched the plan to more than 60 community groups throughout southern New Jersey and Delaware as part of a public comment period.

Environmental groups, local government officials, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-2nd, and even the labor union at the Deepwater facility have opposed the plan. The federal Environmental Protection Agency dropped its objection to the plan last month, while a review by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to continue for several more weeks.

To many of the 30 or so people at Thursday's meeting, it sounded ridiculous.

"We get no benefit from it," local resident John DiOrio said. "DuPont makes all the money."

"Any agent you put in the water affects fishing patterns," Heislerville fisherman George Kumor said.

More than a dozen people spoke at the meeting. Most criticized the plan.

"I haven't heard one that was positive," Maurice River Mayor Ron Riggins said.

Several suggested DuPont create a trust fund in the event that the local fishing industry is hurt by the plan.

"This is what we do out here," said Elizabeth Thompson, a technical assistant with Cumberland County's aquaculture program. "The water is very important to us."

To e-mail Daniel Walsh at The Press:   DWalsh@pressofac.com