Army says spilled liquid containing VX safely cleaned

Posted 11:55 a.m. Monday June 13, 2005.

NEWPORT, Ind. - Nearly all of about 30 gallons of a liquid containing VX has been cleaned up after spilling into a containment area during a process to destroy the deadly nerve agent, the Army said today.

Workers in protective gear used a mixture of sodium hydroxide and water to clean any surface the liquid touched at the Newport Chemical Agent Destruction Facility in western Indiana. Monitors that provide contamination readings registered minute amounts during their latest readings, spokeswoman Terry Arthur said.

"The level is very low and falling," she said.

The spill Friday night was the first since workers began destroying the chemical at the depot on May 5. The Army said in a release that none of the agent escaped a containment area and that there was no danger to nearby communities.

The spill involved a mixture of VX and hydrolysate, the caustic chemical into which the VX is converted. It occurred while VX was being fed into a reactor where the nerve agent is neutralized.

Workers suspect a faulty valve diaphragm caused the leak. They plan to replace diaphragms on four valves as a precaution, Arthur said.

More than 250,000 gallons of the Cold War-era chemical weapon are stored at the depot about 30 miles north of Terre Haute. VX is so deadly that just one drop can kill a person.

Indiana Department of Environmental Management spokeswoman Laura Pippenger said there was no worries of environmental contamination but inspectors will visit the site this week "to try to avoid this kind of thing in the future."

Story created Jun 13, 2005 - 11:55:23 CDT