The Department of Environmental Protection released a draft surface water discharge permit for the DuPont Chamber Works plant Friday that does not include allowing treatment of a neutralized VX nerve agent byproduct.
The project of treating a neutralized VX nerve agent byproduct is part of a proposed plan by the U.S. Army and is also under scrutiny by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control.
John Strait, DuPont Chamber Works plant manager, said the permit is a part of a renewal process that occurs every year.
"It's a procedural thing," he said. "It's a normal renewal process that happens every year."
Strait said the permit is not related to the VX treatment.
"The permit is in no way related to potential VX treatment," he said. "It
is not a permit for us to treat the waste."
If the VX proposal was approved the water discharge permit would have to be modified and go under further public comment and DEP review.
Acting Governor Richard Codey sent a letter to the U.S. Army Secretary Francis Harvey Friday further expressing his opposition to the Army's plan to transport the VX waste to a treatment facility in New Jersey. Codey instructed the NJDEP to exclude the VX nerve agent waste proposal from the water discharge permit, according to a DEP press release.
DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell said he also does not approve of the Army's VX proposal.
"The Army's proposal is flawed and it should be abandoned not revised," he said. "If it is revised, DEP will conduct a thorough review of any new information concerning the treatment of VX hydrolysate at the DuPont plant and require a comprehensive public comment process."
Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum said she strongly agrees with the governor's statement.
"This is the right decision by the Governor and by the DEP," she said. "There is no excuse for exposing the public and the Delaware River to this deadly chemical since it can be taken care of as required under the Chemical Weapons Treaty without dumping it into the Delaware or any other river."
Tim Ireland, spokesman for the DuPont Chamber Works, said Codey further expressed his opposition to the project because of anticipated confusion from the public.
"I suspect the governor and commissioner are responding to possible confusion over what the permit application allows and what it doesn't allow," he said. "It doesn't allow DuPont to discharge wastewater from neutralized VX. Before we can do that, we have to go through a completely separate DEP review."
Ireland said the water discharge permit only allows the Chamber Works to run effectively.
"The new water permit application simply allows DuPont Chambers Works to discharge exactly what it is discharging now into the Delaware River," he said. "Although it's slightly more stringent than our last permit, it doesn't represent a major change in the treated wastewater Chambers Works can discharge into the River."
The draft permit renewal contains a number of limits and/or conditions that are more stringent than the existing permit. A summary of the conditions are as follows: