Pine Bluff Commercial
May 21, 2003

WATER-BASED SOLUTION OUTLINED

By Scott Loftis/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

Methylphosphonyl diflouride and diisopropylaminoethyl methyl phosphonite are more than just puzzles in pronunciation.

They're also toxic chemicals, and each can become lethal when mixed with other, less intimidating ingredients like isopropyl alcohol or sulfur.

But they're no match for warm water, according to the U.S. Army.

The Army's plans to destroy the two chemicals, which are referred to as "binary precursor chemicals" and better known as DF and QL, respectively, were the topic of a public meeting Tuesday night.

Larry Friedman, binary project manager for non-stockpile chemical materiel, made a slide presentation during the meeting that outlined the history of binary chemical weapons and the process that will be used to destroy them at the Pine Bluff Arsenal.

According to Friedman, almost 50,000 canisters -- each about the size of a coffee can -- of DF are stored at the Arsenal. Also housed at the Arsenal are 300 55-gallon drums of the binary precursors, 293 containing QL.

Binary weapons were designed so that the precursor chemicals would mix in flight with other chemicals

to produce lethal nerve agents. DF would blend with isopropyl alcohol to form the nerve agent GB, while QL combined with sulfur powder to form the nerve agent VX.

The Army planned to produce the binary weapons at the Arsenal and even built large production facilities on the Arsenal grounds.

But those plants were shut down in 1991, and now the U.S. is scheduled to destroy all of its binary weapons, including the precursor chemicals, and production facilities under the terms of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The CWC is a multilateral agreement in which the U.S. and other countries pledged to destroy their chemical weapons by 2007.

According to Friedman, the process for destroying DF and QL at the Arsenal will be relatively simple and quick.

Contractors will reconfigure one of the former production plants as a destruction facility, and then the chemicals will be mixed with warm water in a process called hydrolysis.

That process will reduce the levels of DF and QL to less than 1,000 parts per million, then the material will be transported by truck to an off-site commercial disposal facility, where it will be further reduced.

Friedman said the current plans call for the chemicals to be destroyed in late 2005. DF will be destroyed first, in a process expected to take about eight weeks. Then the QL will be destroyed over a period of about two weeks.

Options for dealing with the "secondary waste" produced by the project are still being evaluated, Friedman said.

The purpose of Tuesday's meeting was to inform the public about the process and also to hear input and concerns.

"If there is public concern and it's validated that we need to address some area of the process, we're going to do it," Friedman said. "At the least, we're going to look at it."