By Patricia L. Pastore/Clinton
The Tribune-Star

The Army is seeking modification of a state permit for an additional building to store specific wastes at the Newport Chemical Depot.

Examples of the wastes, referred to as 1X hazardous waste, include employee protective equipment such as gloves, laboratory wastes, spent activated carbon, contaminated trash and parts that have been possibly exposed to nerve agent VX and then decontaminated, said Jeff Brubaker, Army project manager for the disposal facility.

He said the new storage building requested in the permit modification is made of galvanized steel.

Before storage in a building, the waste is put into 55-gallon drums and other Department of Transportation-approved containers, Brubaker said.

Currently in use is a wood-frame building that was previously approved for hazardous waste storage on the Chemical Depot but that building is expected to be full some time between April and June. Brubaker said.

The Army conducted a public hearing Tuesday evening on the permit modification. More than a dozen people attended, all but one being government employees or employees of Parsons, the contractor in charge of operating the VX disposal facility.

The additional storage facility is a Quonset hut with the capacity to store 1,088 55-gallon containers or an equivalent of 59,840 gallons of primarily solid waste that is nerve-agent related, said Scott Rowden, Parsons environmental director.

Leonard Akers of Clinton, a citizen, said he has no objection to the permit modification. “I think it’s pretty generic,” he said. “Before it’s over, I think they are going to need a lot more storage space.”

The Army, also as part of the permit, seeks permission from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to store the containers filled with hazardous waste in the storage buildings for more than 90 days, Brubaker said.

He said some of the containers may remain in storage until after completion of the destruction of the nerve agent stockpile that is under way.

A decision on a new storage facility will come after the public comment period, which ends Feb. 14.

For more information, call (765) 245-4572.

Patricia Pastore can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or pat.pastore@tribstar.com.