Today's Sunbeam
April 23, 2003

Md. site sending mustard agent to Chambers Works for processing

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

From Staff Reports

PENNSVILLE TWP. -- The process of destroying the bulk mustard agent stockpile at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., will begin today under the accelerated program implemented by the Army following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

However, DuPont Chambers Works' role in the project will not begin for another couple of weeks, according to Michelle Reardon, a spokeswoman for DuPont.

In May 2002, DuPont Chemical Solutions formalized a contract with a Maryland contractor to truck and treat the neutralized byproduct of mustard agent at its Chambers Works plant here.

After the agent is neutralized at the Maryland site, it will be transported here to the wastewater treatment plant in Deepwater.

Destruction had been scheduled for completion by the year 2006, but security concerns after the terrorist attacks led to "Speedy Neut," a project that reordered the sequence and design of the original neutralization process. Now the Aberdeen Chemical Agent Disposal Facility will remove the greater risk by destroying the mustard agent first, according to a press release. Later, after all of the agent has been destroyed, the empty steel containers will be decontaminated and cut in two for recycling off-site.

""We are safely accelerating the destruction of the mustard agent stockpile by more than two years," said Kevin J. Flamm, the Army's Project Manager for Alternative Technologies and Approaches, in a press release.

"We put a great deal of time into training and preparation, and have been working in concert with federal and state regulators and the community," said Joseph Lovrich, ABCDF site manager, "so that a project of this magnitude would meet all state, federal and military requirements."

Officials have said that the hydrolosate, the byproduct of the mustard agent, poses very little threat to the public. But because it contains trace amounts of volatile organic compounds, officials have said that the trucks shipping the material to Salem County will bear "hazardous" materials placards.

The wastewater treatment plant at Chambers Works is capable of treating 40 million gallons of wastewater per day, officals said. DuPont also processes other hazardous waste from Aberdeen Proving Grounds.