St. Louis Post-Dispatch
March 5, 2003

Firm may have lost nerve gas job

By MICHAEL SHAW
Post-Dispatch
updated: 03/05/2003 09:43 AM

The chances of 1,200 tons of neutralized nerve gas coming to Sauget for
incineration are slim, officials say.

Onyx Environmental Services of Sauget, at the request of the Army, last year
bid on the job of burning the neutralized nerve gas, now stockpiled in
Indiana.

"If I were a gambler, I would say the material is probably not coming here,"
Onyx general manager Doug Harris said Tuesday.

The prospect of the material coming to Sauget drew protests, particularly
from some East St. Louis residents who live north of the incinerator.

The contract has been provisionally awarded to Perma-Fix Environmental
Services Inc. of Dayton, Ohio. It got the contract for $9 million.

The company is expected to try to use a bio-treatment process to consume the
neutralized nerve gas.

Anything as deadly as nerve gas can't be shipped. So it will be diluted and
chemically altered this fall at its storage site 70 miles west of
Indianapolis.

That action will leave a substance reduced in harmfulness to the level of
household drain cleaner, yet still considered hazardous waste.

The bio-treatment is costlier than incinerating the material, according to a
source familiar with the situation.

Incineration or other methods may be cheaper, but an Army contractor
concluded that bio-treatment is a better value because it is a "cleaner"
technology.

"It's favorable when you consider the potential effects on water and air
quality," said Kirby Pitman, a director for the Army contractor handling the
job.

Under bio-treatment, bacteria essentially eat the hazardous compounds and
digest them, leaving benign leftovers such as carbon dioxide and salts.

The Sauget incinerator is a possibility only if tests show bio-treatment is
an ineffective remedy.

Harris, the Onyx general manager, said residents' objections and the
company's stance may have played a role in decision.

"Our attitude was always, 'If somebody else can do it, let them,' " he said.
"We're willing to help but don't need the business."

Environmental groups consider bio-treatment the best option. But they would
prefer that all of the country's chemical weapons be destroyed at their
current locations.

"This treatment process appears to be a step up over incineration," said
Elizabeth Crowe, an organizer for the Chemical Weapons Working Group in
Berea, Ky. "But we don't endorse it if the local community doesn't support
it."

Crowe noted that there have been protests in Dayton against the plan.

If tests prove effective, the neutralized material could be trucked to
Dayton this fall.

U.S. stockpiles of chemical weapons, housed in eight states, are supposed to
be destroyed by 2007 under a treaty. Government officials expedited the
process to eliminate chemical weapons depots as potential sites for
terrorism.

Reporter Michael Shaw:
E-mail: mshaw@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 618-235-3988
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