The Army will decontaminate eight VX bulk storage tanks at Newport by a method of electrical resistance heating, it announced Thursday.

Despite being emptied and decontaminated in 1968, tests on three of the tanks at the former VX Production Facility at the Newport Chemical Depot indicated lingering traces of VX.

The Army decided to use electrical resistance heating rather than a liquid rinse process partly because of community input during a July 14 public session at Newport, a U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency news release said Thursday.

"The tanks stored VX nerve agent following production in the facility," the news release said. "Under the requirements of the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty under which the U.S. is destroying the former production facility, the tanks must be cut in half, which first required decontamination."

The ERH method generates no liquid waste and only 3,500 pounds of solid waste compared with a minimum of 232,000 gallons of liquid waste and 94,000 gallons of solid waste from the liquid rinse option. After ERH is complete, the agent's bulk storage tanks' metal scrap will be recycled, the Army has said.

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

Story created July 29, 2005 09:14:04 CDT.