for more information contact:
Alan Muller, Green Delaware (302)
834-3466
Sara Morgan, CAIN (765) 498-4472
Tina Daly, PEN (610) 983-0874
Laura Rench, CRDCW (937) 835-3464
Tracy Carluccio, DRN (215) 369-1188
Elizabeth Crowe, CWWG (859) 200-8207
embargoed until 10 AM, Thursday, April 6, 2006
“DO IT RIGHT, KEEP IT ON SITE!”
SAY GROUPS FROM SIX STATES, URGING SAFE
DESTRUCTION OF NERVE AGENT WASTES ON-SITE IN INDIANA INSTEAD OF DISCHARGE INTO THE DELAWARE RIVER
“Army’s proposal for shipping
VX hydrolysate is going down the drain.”
Boaters, union members, environmental justice activists,
local elected officials and conservationists from six states came together
today to denounce a U.S. Army plan to ship VX nerve agent hydrolysate – the
hazardous liquid by-product of nerve agent neutralization – from Indiana to
New Jersey, to be treated and discharged into the Delaware River. More
than twenty organizations took place in press events today in Indianapolis
and southern New Jersey to promote safe destruction of the VX hydrolysate
in Indiana.
Newport, Indiana is home to one of eight chemical
weapons stockpile sites, and the only site whose stockpile is comprised solely
of bulk containers of VX nerve agent. This nerve agent is now being neutralized
with water and a caustic solution, which results in hydrolysate. Until
December 2002 the Army had planned to do follow-up treatment of this hydrolysate
at Newport with a technology called Supercritical Water Oxidation (SCWO),
which had been scrutinized for years and approved by the Army, citizen environmental
groups and state regulators. Then, responding to terrorism fears after 9/11,
the Army abruptly decided to instead ship the waste to an off-site commercial
treatment facility, under the assumption that this plan would cost less and
could be accomplished in less time. Since then, a multitude of citizens
groups and other professional organizations and elected officials in Indiana,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey have criticized the plan as unnecessary
at best; a threat to the environment and chemical security at worst.
At the Indianapolis press event, Sara Morgan, a retired
schoolteacher from Newport, Indiana made clear that Hoosiers have long been
committed to treating the waste on-site. “I don’t know about other places
in the country, but in west central Indiana we care about being good neighbors.
In this case our neighbors stretch all the way to New Jersey and we don’t
want this material dumped on them when it can be treated safely right here.”
Groups along the proposed transportation route, which
includes the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, are concerned about the chances
of a highway hydrolysate spill. These concerns have been heightened
as chemical security issues – such as toxic spills on highways and railways,
and hazardous cargo re-routing in east coast cities – are gaining more attention
in local and national government. Tina Daly, with the Pennsylvania Environmental
Network noted one difference between these situations and the VX hydrolysate
issue: an easy solution. “Of all the thousands of trucks carrying hazardous
waste on the highways every day, the solution to any risks posed by hydrolysate
transportation doesn’t involve choosing which communities to put at risk.
Instead it is taking a precautionary approach and preventing transportation
in the first place. It’s an easy fix.”
Others speaking in New Jersey emphasized their skepticism
that DuPont could safely treat the waste. “DuPont has not proven to
be a reliable handler of dangerous substances, as proven by the recent expose
of their mishandling of PFOAs. We cannot place waste from deadly VX
into such unreliable hands,” said Tracy Carluccio of the Delaware Riverkeeper
Network. Alan Muller, with Green Delaware, agreed. “DuPont
has long been known as one of the world's worst environmental offenders. So
it is hardly surprising that people on both sides of the Delaware River, in
Delaware and New Jersey, have been determined from the beginning that VX
nerve agent wastes will not be added to the toxic mix DuPont dumps into our
river.”
Union workers from both Indiana and New Jersey also
supported on-site treatment of the VX hydrolysate in Indiana. In New Jersey,
union workers say that DuPont’s shoddy maintenance record should give us pause,
even if a risk assessment shows that the treatment process might work. However
in Indiana, union workers are confident in the SCWO process and want to benefit
from the local jobs.
Boating groups such as the Pennsylvania Boating Association
and the Delaware River Yacht Club are concerned that the discharge from DuPont
will harm the Delaware River ecosystem and turn away people who use the river
for recreation.
Elizabeth Crowe, spokesperson for the Chemical Weapons
Working Group, headquartered in Kentucky, noted that the Army’s original argument
for transportation of the hydrolysate was that it would be cheaper and faster
than using SCWO on-site, but that to date the Army has offered up no data
proving its point. “When you consider the amount of taxpayer dollars
spent on scientific reviews of off-site commercial treatment, transportation
risk assessments, public relations, and additional storage of hydrolysate
in Indiana, the alleged ‘cost savings’ are gone,” Crowe said. “Meanwhile,
the Army’s own demonstration data for SCWO continue to show that this technology
is a safe, viable choice for treatment of VX hydrolysate.”
Before the Army sought a contract with DuPont to treat
the hydrolysate, it tried to ship the waste to Dayton, Ohio for treatment
at a PermaFix facility. Dayton resident Mary Johnson helped organize her community,
which is on the fenceline of the PermaFix facility, to oppose the shipment.
Johnson said the overwhelming opposition by Ohio communities and legislators
should have been a clear message to the Army that transporting the waste
was not the way to go. “But instead of going back to its original plan,
as we suggested, the Army just tried to unload its burden on yet another
community,” she said. “The Army is continuing down a path of injustice
and we’re still here to help stop it.”
Sharon Finlayson with the New Jersey Environmental
Federation said New Jersey groups will continue to work with their elected
officials and regulators to reject the nerve agent wastes and band together
to protect workers, communities and the Delaware River. “ The discharging
of poisons into our waterways continues to tell our society that it is okay
to treat our lakes, streams, rivers and oceans as toxic sewers. This
dangerous practice must be stopped.”
Crowe summed up the feeling of the groups today by
saying, “This VX waste transportation proposal is going down the drain.
The Army should avoid any further erosion of its reputation in communities
and among politicians by moving forward swiftly with on-site treatment in
Indiana.”
