WEST DEPTFORD TWP. -- New Jersey environmental groups -- and those
in five other states -- called on the U.S. Army Thursday to revive plans
to treat the neutralized byproduct of a deadly nerve agent in Indiana instead
of shipping it to DuPont Chambers Works in Deepwater.
The current plan calls for 4 million gallons of hydrolysate, the byproduct
produced from the destruction of the VX nerve agent, to be treated in Salem
County and dumped into the Delaware River.
Standing on the banks of the river at West Deptford's RiverWinds Community Center in Gloucester County Thursday, activists expressed environmental, safety and health concerns of the plan.
"The people of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey do not want this shipped anywhere," said Tracy Carluccio of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, referring to states along the 700-mile transportation routes. "Trying to pretend the safety risks don't exist will not bring about a solution.Environmental groups in Kentucky also rallied against the plan.
DuPont officials claim that the wastewater is similar to other corrosive materials currently transported on state highways, such as drain cleaner.
DuPont Chambers Works Plant Manager John Strait said if the plant cannot
safely treat the wastewater, they will abandon the plan.
"DuPont contends the waste stream can be treated effectively," he said. "If
we can't do it safely and effectively, we won't do it."
Environmental groups, DuPont and the U.S. Army are anticipating this month's release of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report on the potential hazards of the plan, and the transportation of the material.
The hydrolysate will be transported by highway from Newport Chemical Depot in Newport, Ind., to Deepwater. DuPont is proposing four different transportation routes.
In mid-March, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-1st Dist., U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, and Assemblyman Douglas Fisher, D-3rd Dist., sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation calling for a separate report to assure residents along the 700-mile transportation route that they are not at risk of harm by a potential spill.
A spokesman for Menendez said Thursday they have not received a response to the letter.
Jim Rowe, president of United Steelworkers Local 943 that represents DuPont workers, said plant employees are concerned about the maintenance required to treat the hydrolysate at the plant as well as the potential river pollution.
"We have fought DuPont on this issue," he said. "We do not want to see it go out into the river."
Strait said Thursday he has similar concerns about keeping the river clean, but believes that the process is safe.
The U.S. government called for the accelerated demolition of all chemical weapon stockpiles in the country after Sept. 11, 2001 to relieve the risk of potential terrorist attacks.
The proposed deadline is 2007.
The government approached DuPont about destroying the material, according to Strait, since the plant runs a waste management process with "unique and technical abilities to treat very complex waste."
But environmental groups, including Trudy O'Hare of the Salem County Watershed
Task Force, are still not confident with the plan.
"It's our river, not their sewer to dispose of the toxic waste."