SCIENCE AND VX DISPOSAL

Healthy skepticism

Published: Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Yucca Mountain, the Nevada site where the federal government plans to store nuclear waste, has been called the most studied real estate in the world. The government's scientists are convinced that spent fuel from the nation's nuclear-power plants can be stored safely beneath 1,000 feet of solid rock at Yucca.

Nonetheless, many in Nevada remain steadfastly opposed to the plan.

Southern New Jersey is in the midst of a similar battle.

Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention--the most respected public-health agency in the world--said it found no health or environmental problems in the Army's plan to dispose of VX nerve-agent waste in the Delaware River.

Nonetheless, many in New Jersey remain opposed to the plan.

Science doesn't carry the weight it used to. Whether it's nuclear waste in Nevada or nerve-agent waste in New Jersey, the public remains unconvinced by the experts.

The skepticism is healthy.

We would all like to live in a world of hard, immutable, completely trustworthy scientific fact. Certainly, we need no longer quibble about whether the Earth is round or whether it revolves around the sun. But today's scientific issues, particularly those like the disposal of dangerous manmade waste, often turn on points far more speculative than, say, the law of gravity.

Science at this level is akin to a guess--a best guess, a well-informed guess, a studied guess, an expert guess. But still a guess.

So the CDC report does not end and should not end the controversy over hydrolysate, a caustic byproduct resulting from the neutralization of the VX nerve agent.

The Army wants to truck 4 million gallons of hydrolysate, which contains trace amounts of VX, from a facility in Indiana to New Jersey for further treatment at a DuPont Co. plant in Salem County--and ultimate disposal into the sensitive Delaware River and Delaware Bay ecosystem.

One drop of VX can kill a man. The Army and the CDC say the level of VX in the hydrolysate will be so low that it would not harm humans. But there is evidence that even very low levels could harm wildlife. A May 2004 Army document showed that at levels from 20 to 25 parts per billion, VX still killed fish.

At issue is the fragile Delaware River and Delaware Bay ecosystem. Migrating birds, horseshoe crabs, striped bass and other fish, and a long-struggling oyster population are all under pressure in this already stressed ecosystem.

And as this ecosytem goes, so go the many tourism-related and marine businesses that depend on it.

The Army and DuPont, which would reportedly receive $13.5 million a year during the two- to three-year treatment process, may very well be able to dispose of this material in the Delaware River with no ill effect. But no one can say that for sure.

The state of New Jersey has yet to weigh in on the plan. Certainly, the CDC study should be reviewed carefully. But perhaps most importantly, if a decision is ultimately made to go ahead, DuPont should be required to set aside a significant sum of money to mitigate any future problems caused by the disposal of VX waste into the Delaware River.