Army touts nerve agent savings in N.J.

By Sandy Bauers
Inquirer Staff Writer 

The Army has concluded that its plan to treat neutralized VX nerve agent wastewater at a DuPont Co. plant in South Jersey and dump it in the Delaware River would be up to $347 million cheaper than disposing of it in Indiana, where it's stored.

The project also could be concluded nearly five years sooner, according to a report released late Tuesday.

But U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews (D., N.J.) said the Army had failed to prove that DuPont would be the cheapest option. "Frankly, this smacks of an attitude that says, 'Ready, fire, aim,' " he said.

"We just can't take the Army's word for it," agreed Tracy Carluccio of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, a nonprofit environmental group. Andrews said he would ask for a Government Accountability Office review and work to use the coming House Armed Services Authorization Bill to scuttle the project.

Jeffrey Lindblad, spokesman for the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, said the Army was "confident in the accuracy and validity" of the report.

Critics complain that the report fails to specify the cost of the DuPont project, casting doubt on the $347 million in savings.

Lindblad said the Army could not be more specific, but offered a "guesstimate" that DuPont would be paid $100 million in the $1.2 billion project.