The entire New Jersey Turnpike has been marked as a possible route in the U.S. Army's plan to reduce its stockpile of lethal VX nerve agent by neutralizing it in Indiana and transporting the chemical byproduct to the Garden State to be dumped in the Delaware River south of Philadelphia.

Since May, the Army has begun destroying 1,269 tons of VX nerve agent housed at its Newport Chemical Depot in western Indiana, where the chemical byproduct will be stored while the Army awaits regulatory approvals to dump it in the Delaware.

A single pinpoint droplet of VX - a liquid with the consistency of mineral oil - can kill a healthy man quickly. Hydrolysate, the chemical byproduct resulting from the destruction of VX, isn't a lethal nerve agent but a corrosive wastewater substance similar to liquid drain cleaner.

The DuPont company and the Army have proposed a disposal plan in which a DuPont plant near the southern tip of the New Jersey Turnpike would handle final treatment of the hydrolysate before pumping it into the Delaware.

The Army has estimated that destroying 1,269 tons of VX would produce 4 million gallons of hydrolysate that would be sent over 2 1/2 years to DuPont's Chambers Works plant in Pennsville, Salem County.

Although the route the hydrolysate shipments would take from Indiana to New Jersey has yet to be decided, DuPont officials said yesterday that four possibilities are in play.

All four rely on trucking the VX byproduct on highways from Indiana to DuPont's Pennsville facility.

The potential route that includes the New Jersey Turnpike first cuts across northern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey on Interstate 80. It is the northernmost proposed route and the only one in which the VX byproduct might be hauled through Middlesex, Mercer and Burlington counties, according to DuPont.

Whatever route - or combination of routes - is used to ship the hydrolysate to New Jersey, it is likely two tanker trucks would make daily deliveries of the liquid to DuPont for about 2 1/2 years, said Todd Owens, a DuPont chemical engineer who has been involved in the transport planning.

The three other routes skirt Pennsylvania's southern border and cross into New Jersey over the Delaware Memorial Bridge, close to the DuPont facility.

"All (four routes) are equally safe and essentially the same in terms of risk," Owens said. "The transportation of this material is really very safe."

A fifth transport alternative, which would rely on both rail and trucking to haul the hydrolysate to New Jersey, cuts easterly through Bucks County, Pa., to Morrisville before turning south to Pennsville, according to a 2004 DuPont report.

"We didn't follow up with that one because the (four truck-only) routes were exceptionally safe," Owens said yesterday. "Bucks County, they really would not be involved with this at all."

The truck-based potential transport plan has been reviewed and cleared by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said.

But the CDC still is reviewing the overall plan, over which, in an 86-page report issued in April, it raised concerns and questions about potential impacts on public health and the environment.

The CDC report was critical in several areas, including the possibility of traces of VX still being present in the byproduct at levels potentially harmful to fish but not humans.

But at least from a transport and treatment standpoint, Owens said, the only hazard associated with the wastewater is its corrosiveness, which he said the company and its haulers are well equipped to handle safely.

He said DuPont is confident there will be no traces of VX left in the byproduct once it leaves Indiana and that DuPont would not accept it otherwise.

U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine yesterday turned the neutralized VX nerve agent into a campaign promise, saying he would never let the Army dump the byproduct into a river in or bordering New Jersey if he is elected governor.

The state Department of Environmental Protection said in May it would not issue a permit to allow DuPont to further treat the VX byproduct before it is dumped into the Delaware.

Corzine said that, if elected in November, he would order the agency to continue that policy. "If I happen to be the governor, it won't be permitted," Corzine said.

Rep. Robert Andrews, one of the Democratic congressmen interested in filling Corzine's Senate seat if he becomes governor, also vowed to bar the VX byproduct from the Delaware.

The Army's plan is unpopular with most officials in southern New Jersey, including the state's Republican congressmen who represent the area and GOP gubernatorial candidate Douglas Forrester. Delaware officials also are against the plan.

Sherry Sylvester, Forrester's campaign spokeswoman, questioned why Corzine and Andrews hadn't yet been successful in getting the Army to find another solution.

"Doug will have more influence in Washington to get this done," Sylvester said, alluding to Forrester's friendship with President Bush. Forrester also raised more than $100,000 for Bush's re-election campaign.

Separately, two Democratic assemblymen whose legislative district includes Burlington County - Jack Conners of Pennsauken and Herb Conaway of Burlington City - said yesterday they also would work to prevent the VX byproduct from being hauled through that county, even if the shipments are restricted to the Turnpike.

Destroying the VX is mandated by the International Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty.

NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to this report.
NOTE: Contact Robert Stern at rstern@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5731.