News

Familiar reaction to nerve agent plan

By DANIEL WALSH Staff Writer, (856) 794-5111
Published: Friday, March 24, 2006

COMMERCIAL TOWNSHIP -- Representatives from DuPont and the U.S. Army got a familiar reaction Thursday in response to their plan to dispose of a nerve agent's waste in the Delaware River: People don't want it.

DuPont chemical engineer Todd Owens and U.S. Army Col. Jesse Barber faced a critical audience at the Commercial Township Committee meeting in Port Norris, the epicenter of the Delaware Bay's oyster industry. The pair explained the plan to dispose of neutralized VX nerve agent's wastewater at DuPont's plant in Salem County, but people overwhelmingly opposed it.

The plan drew concern from local oystermen who questioned the effect of salts in DuPont's river discharge. Two fishermen asked if DuPont would post a performance bond with an escrow in case its discharges hurt the bay's ecology and fishing economy, which have weathered the parastic disease, Dermo, for more than a decade.

"Our oyster disease, Dermo, is directly related to salt content," said Barney Hollinger, a Port Norris oysterman who sits on the state Department of Environmental Protection's Delaware Bay shellfisheries council. "The more salt, the more the temperature goes up and the more Dermo you have."

Owens said after the hearing that the salt would have minimal effect and the DEP wouldn't permit more salt than could be handled.

By that time, he and Barber had faced a barrage of criticism. Owens and Barber have had the difficult task of explaining a complicated technology to people who have mostly -- and wrongly -- heard that "nerve gas" is going to be dumped in the river.

"There is no toxic agent in the wastewater," said Barber, a chemist with the Army's Chemical Materials Agency. "The hazard in the (waste)water comes from the Ph 14. It's corrosive."

Environmental groups, several government officials -- including U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-1st -- and even the plant's own labor union have opposed the plan. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, however, dropped its objections last month, while a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention review continues. The final decision lies with the state DEP.

It centers on VX nerve agent, a lethal chemical weapon with the texture of motor oil.

The Army began neutralizing VX at a depot in Newport, Ind., in a process based on one successfully used to destroy mustard gas in Aberdeen, Md. To accelerate matters, the Army drew on DuPont's Salem County plant, the largest commercial wastewater plant in North America, rather than build its own treatment plant, Barber said.

In this process, the VX is put into a chemical reactor. 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.

This destroys the VX, according to Barber and Owens, and produces a caustic wastewater byproduct called hydrolysate, consisting of about 85 percent water, 4 percent sodium hydroxide and 8 or 9 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 and the salts and sodium hydroxide neutralized.

What's left would be ordinary water and salts, which would be dropped into the Delaware River.

"DuPont has made clear we will not take wastewater with any detectable VX," Owens said.

Nor could the Army legal transport it, Barber said.

Current technology can measure the presence of VX only down to 14 parts per billion, however.

Beyond that is "cloudy," Owens said.

But what happens if something goes wrong? What happens if the government and DuPont think something's harmless, and 10 years from now, that proves wrong? That's what many asked Thursday night, concerned for their children and families that rely on the bay for food, recreation and employment.

"I'm concerned if something happens, what's going to be the impact on this bay, our heritage, on our jobs," said Mike Wintjen, a fisherman with homes in Glassboro and Fortescue.

DuPont has indicated the company will not do the project if government reviews find it's unsafe. The chemical company stands to make a lot of money off the project. It has spoken to more than 60 community groups in three states as part of a public comment period.

"My kids eat fish from that very same bay. We fish in it. We ski in it. That's our heritage," said Chris Kline, who lives in the town's Laurel Lake section. “I wouldn't want you to dump the cleanest tap water into the bay.

"I don't want you to dump anything into that bay."

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