Published: October 19, 2006 10:46 pm  

VX can’t head to east coast … yet

By Deb McKee
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE -- The Army will have to wait a little longer to learn whether it will be allowed to ship neutralized VX nerve gas to New Jersey.

On Wednesday, President Bush signed into law the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for 2007, a broad military spending bill that includes a provision by New Jersey congressmen to keep neutralized VX from being shipped to a DuPont plant, where it would be treated and dumped into the Delaware River.

Under the new law, the Government Accountability Office must complete an independent cost-benefit analysis before the neutralized VX can be shipped to New Jersey. The requirement likely delays the dumping until at least February.

Jeff Lindblad, spokesman for the Army's Chemical Materials Agency, said, "We welcome the review.

"We are confident the GAO will validate our assessment, just as the first and second Centers for Disease Control reports validated our assessment of public safety with regard to the transportation of VX and the environmental protection afforded to the Delaware River by the DuPont process."

VX is so deadly that a single drop can kill. The Army is required by a 1997 international treaty to destroy the chemical weapon by 2012 and is in the process of neutralizing the substance at the Newport Chemical Depot, near Clinton.

When VX is neutralized, it becomes VX hydrolysate, which then can be treated in a two-step operation, according to DuPont chemical engineers, making it safe to release into the water.

However, the Army has encountered opposition from citizens in Indiana, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania for more than two years. "Some people just feel that it shouldn't be done," Lindblad said. "There were concerns voiced by individuals in the state and basically, we have addressed them all."

For now, the Army is storing the byproduct at Newport. Lindblad said there is sufficient storage for the wastewater, and added that about 28 percent of VX has been destroyed.

"We're moving along very well," he said.

Lindblad said the GAO's assessment is due to Congress by the first of December. Language in the bill prohibits the Army from shipping any hydrolysate wastewater for 60 days after the first of December, he said.

"There are other options," Lindblad said, "but right now we know this is the safest and most cost-effective way to safely treat the hydrolysate.

"We have worked diligently providing data to Congress, and to state and federal officials and regulators, as well as to the public," he said. "We are confident, and the CDC and EPA have verified that confidence."

Deb McKee can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.mckee@tribstar.com.