Science& Nature
Plan to dump nerve agent waste in Delaware
riles civic groups
By DANIEL WALSH Staff Writer, (856)
794-5111
Published: Thursday,
April 6, 2006
COMMERCIAL TOWNSHIP -- They don't want it in New Jersey.
They didn't want it in Ohio.
But they do want it in Newport, Ind.
So why does the U.S. Army want to chemically destroy VX nerve agent in Newport,
Ind., and truck the wastewater byproduct to New Jersey for neutralization
and eventual disposal into the Delaware River?
New Jersey residents have opposed the project in public meeting with representatives
from the Army and DuPont chemical company. Delaware Bay fishermen worry about
effects on the shellfish industry. The plan's been rejected in Ohio, where
the Army first tried to dispose of the VX wastewater, or hydrolysate.
Groups in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, New Jersey and Delaware want the VX and
its hydrolysate fully treated at the Indiana plant. They're holding parallel
news conferences today to voice their opposition to the DuPont plan.
"Everyone was kind of saying, "I don't want them to burn it in my community,'"
said Elizabeth Crowe, of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a nonprofit
based near the Bluegrass, Ky. "The mom in Kentucky says I think we should
ship this out to the desert in Utah because nobody lives there. But then
the mom in Utah says, I live here, and I have kids. What about us? So the
decision was to say we want to destroy these stockpiles in the communities
they're stored in. We don't want to dump on another community."
In 1985, Congress ordered the Army to destroy its chemical weapons, according
to Jeff Lindblad, the spokesman for the Army Chemical Materials Agency.
In 1987, the Army began stockpiling chemical agents in Newport, Ind. and
decided to incinerate the liquid VX, GB and mustard agents. By 1992, however,
people were raising concerns about incineration. Congress told the Army to
look for an alternate means of disposal at depots in Aberdeen, Md. and Indiana.
After three years of public meetings, the Army decided in 1997 to chemically
neutralize the stockpiles in Indiana and Aberdeen, Md. It hired the Parsons
Corp. to design, build, operate and eventually close a chemical reactor at
the Indiana depot.
The Army settled on a neutralization process in which VX is put into a chemical
reactor, heated to 194 degrees Fahrenheit and mixed with sodium hydroxide.
This destroys the VX and produces a caustic wastewater byproduct called hydrolysate,
consisting of about 85 percent water, four percent sodium hydroxide, and
eight or nine percent of organic salts, according to Col. Jesse Barber of
the Chemical Materials Agency.
To neutralize the corrosive hydrolysate, the Army tested a low temperature,
high pressure process called super critical water oxidation, or SCWO, which
brakes down the chemicals, evaporates the water and leaves a solid salt to
be disposed in specially approved landfills. By 2001, Army officials found
SCWO couldn't handle the VX hydrolysate, Lindblad said. The wastewater was
so caustic it broke down pipes and liners too quickly.
After the 2001 terrorist attacks, U.S. Defense Secretary directed the Army
to accelerate the chemical destruction program.
The Army hired Perma-Fix Environmental Services of Dayton, Ohio in December
2002 to handle the hydrolysate. Perma-Fix had a history of pollution problems
operating in a poor neighborhood of west Dayton, area resident Madeline Breslin
recalled.
"It looked like amateur hour," said Breslin who toured Perma-Fix's VX lab.
"I could not believe it. And here we are, talking about the deadliest chemical
weapon in the arsenal of the United States, and they're playing chemistry
games in a walk-in closet that's dirty."
Bruce Rittman, an environmental engineering professor at Northwestern University,
documented the plant's sharp, acrid stench in his study for the Montgomery
County, Ohio government. He found Perma-Fix's proposal didn't answer basic
questions, such as whether the hydrolysate would cause ecotoxicity when diluted
into municipal wastewater and eventually the Great Miami River. The Ohio
Environmental Protection Agency said Perma-Fix's data was a mess, hastily
attached in illegibly scrawled handwriting at the end of its report.
The Montgomery County, Ohio government refused to grant a sewage permit.
The project was dead.
Two months later, in December 2003, a legal advertisement in a small Salem
County, N.J. paper revealed DuPont and its Deepwater, Salem County, treatment
plant were now in the picture. The Army hadn't informed local government
officials. Lindblad called that a mistake.
U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-1st, led several area congressmen in demanding that
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- and eventually the federal
Environmental Protection Agency -- review the plan. Then-Gov. James E. McGreevey
and Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner also opposed the plan.
A month later, DuPont acknowledged it had disposed of 25 liters of hydrolysate
without state permission. It was the beginning of a pattern of concealment
and incompetence, Andrews said.
"They actually"tried it out before even going to New Jersey environmental
regulators for permission,” Andrews said. "That's a no-no."
The Army began destroying VX last May. Since then, there have been at least
four spills at the Indiana facility. Army lab tests in 2004 found
VX survived the neutralization process at more than 20 parts per billion.
Lindblad said anything measuring that high doesn't leave the plant and is
neutralized again. The Army found last summer that hydrolysate is three times
more flammable than originally believed with a flashpoint as low as 68 degrees
Fahrenheit.
An April 2005 federal EPA report raised concerns about the hydrolysate's
effect on ecology in the Delaware River and Bay, but that position was dropped
this February. A CDC review is pending.
Another problem remains. Existing technology can only measure VX down to
14 parts per billion in water. Beyond that, readings are unclear, according
to DuPont chemical engineer Todd Owens.
"The bottom line is we don't know that there won't be any VX below that level,"
said Tracy Carluccio, special projects director for the Delaware Riverkeeper
Network.
Groups in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Delaware and New Jersey want the Army
to neutralize the hydrolysate on site in Indiana, using the SCWO process
that's used at the Army's depot in Bluegrass, Ky.
The process there is different, according to Lindblad, in that the VX hydrolysate
is mixed with mustard and GB hydrolysate, which aren't as caustic. That lowers
its corrosiveness and allows the SCWO process to handle it.
"You're not corroding your liners as much at Bluegrass," Jeff Lindblad said.
"We have determined at Newport that we would have to change out the liners
-- and these are made of titanium -- 230 times, at least eight times a month.
It would have a major impact on the time it takes."
Lindblad estimates SCWO would add two to three years and $350 million to
the project. Some, including Andrews, are skeptical. He's never gotten answers
to his questions about costs on transportation, insurance, and permit applications
for the DuPont plan.
"They don't think we understand it," said Helen Stormes, a Laurel Lake resident.
"I don't think they understand how hard we've worked to keep this waterway
clean."
To e-mail Daniel Walsh at The Press: DWalsh@pressofac.com