Activists Still Not Happy With Army's Plan For Old VX

Apr. 06, 2006

Activists in six states renewed their call today for the Army to drop its plans to ship wastewater produced by the destruction of a deadly nerve agent to a DuPont plant in New Jersey and to instead dispose of the chemical waste in Indiana. The activists' criticism came as they and the Army await a federal report expected this month on DuPont's proposal to treat and dispose of the waste at its Deepwater, New Jersey, plant. They predict political pressure will eventually doom the Army's plans to enlist DuPont to dispose of the caustic wastewater created by the destruction of the Cold War-era V-X nerve agent stored at western Indiana's Newport Chemical Depot. That project is expected to produce about four million gallons of hydrolysate, a chemical the Army wants to truck hundreds of miles to DuPont's Deepwater plant, where it would be treated and discharged into the Delaware River. Critics in New Jersey and Delaware fear traces of V-X and other toxic byproducts would reach the river even after treatment.