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CDC Clears VX Waste Transport, Disposal Plan
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has signed off on U.S. Army plans to ship VX nerve agent disposal waste from Indiana to New Jersey, where it would be processed and dumped into the Delaware River, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Jun 13). The Army has already begun neutralizing VX stored in bulk containers at the Newport Chemical Depot. Its plan to ship hydrolysate wastewater produced by neutralization to a DuPont facility in Deepwater, N.J., sufficiently addresses the risks involved with transportation and treatment of the agent, according to a CDC report issued yesterday. The federal health agency said it “has no critical technical issues in the Army going forth with its plan.” The report also states that the Environmental Protection Agency found that the Army had adequately considered ecological concerns related to the plan. New Jersey Representatives Robert Andrews (D) and Frank LoBiondo (R) said the report did not deem the Army’s plan completely flawless. Andrews said the report’s findings were based on “the rosiest of scenarios, the best-case assumption.” “Residents are scared out of their wits. We have to thoroughly examine every aspect of this,” LoBiondo said. Col. Jesse Barber, project manager for the Army Chemical Materials Agency’s Chemical Stockpile Elimination Project, lauded the report. “We will continue to destroy the nation’s chemical stockpile in a manner that is safe to the American public and will not adversely impact the environment,” Barber said. CDC and EPA officials made a few recommendations for the Army prior to the execution of the plan, calling for assessments of the byproduct’s impact on fish in Delaware River. The agencies also proposed that the Army research the long-term effects of storage on the byproduct. The start of shipments remains on hold until at least February while the Government Accountability Office completes its own assessment of the plan. The Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility to date has destroyed about 20 percent of the 250,000 gallons of the Cold War-era agent stored at the depot. Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, all U.S. chemical weapons must be destroyed by April 2012, though Washington has acknowledged that it does not expect to meet that deadline (see GSN, April 18; Associated Press/Los Angeles Times, June 22).
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