By Karen Hensel
24-Hour News 8

Two lawmakers from New Jersey are calling on the Bush administration to step in and keep deadly VX nerve agent waste out of their state. For the last three years I-Team 8's Project Security investigation has raised questions. Now a letter comes in the wake of the fourth security breach at the Newport plant.

Two democratic lawmakers from New Jersey have sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation calling for a study to determine whether safe transport of the VX waste is possible.

"New Jersey is not a garbage dump, it is not a wasteland," Senator Robert Menendez said.

Plans call for trucking the destroyed VX waste byproduct from Newport, Indiana, to New Jersey and dumping it into the Delaware River.

"A tiny amount the size of a pin could kill a person. The thought of putting it anywhere close to the Delaware where four million depend on drinking water makes no sense to me," Congressman Rob Andrews said.

The letter says, "The treatment process to date has been mired with red flags, including four safety breaches at the plant in Indiana, such as a spill this week of 300 gallons of caustic wastewater."

"What does it say for the over 700 miles it will travel from Indiana to New Jersey? It does not bode well," Congressman Andrews said.

The letter questions the public's safety, asking, "Would local first responders be able to contain, control, and neutralize the material in order to avoid potential public health risk? Do the local communities have warning systems and the equipment necessary to contain such a spill?"

"If it is more costly, let's meet it, the cost of lives, our environment is much greater," Senator Menendez said.

They want the VX destroyed in Indiana and disposed of in Indiana. I-Team 8 reports two years ago documented the concerns of a northwestern scientist who says the VX is not fully destroyed.

Dupont in New jersey will treat two to four million gallons of the caustic chemical soup over the next several years. Plans call for it to be transported one truck at a time. We are awaiting a decision by the U.S. DOT.