Veolia Environmental Service and its contract with the U.S. Army to destroy caustic wastewater held the attention of city council members Tuesday.

Mitch Osborne, general manager at Veolia, a representative of the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality and Jesse Barber, project manager for the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency's Chemical Stockpile Elimination Program presented information to the council regarding the issue.

Councilmembers wondered why two other possible sites one in New Jersey and the second in Ohio, weren't used.

Barber, who is stationed in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., said permit issues in both states kept the Army from choosing those locations.

He said the New Jersey site would take regulators two years to get permits for DuPont to perform the elimination.

"We elected not to wait two years," Barber said.

Recently, Veolia secured a $49 million contract with the Army to incinerate nearly 2 million gallons of a caustic wastewater of the former nerve agent VX, called hydrolysate.

Satellite tracking with state-of-the art technology will keep track of the trucks as they make their way to the Port Arthur facility.

The army colonel has a bachelors degree in chemistry and a masters degree in information systems technology.

Councilmember Tom Henderson asked what would happen if one of the trucks carrying the caustic wastewater were to be involved in a wreck on a crowded highway.

Osborne said there would be a slight odor and the main hazard would be corrosivity. No respiratory problems would occur but the nearby area would be evacuated to clean up the spill should a spill occur. Crews are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, he added.

The wastewater from the former nerve agent is not in a gaseous form but rather a liquid form.

On Monday, Veolia opened their doors to citizens for an informational tour of the facility.