U.S. Army to Ship Chemical Waste to Texas

The U.S. Army plans to ship wastewater produced by chemical weapons disposal in Indiana to Texas for incineration, Chemical & Engineering News reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 2).

Critics of transporting the waste said are already preparing a legal challenge to the plan.

Veolia Environmental Services of Port Arthur is due to receive $49 million to destroy hundreds of thousands of gallons of hydrolysate created during chemical neutralization of VX nerve agent at the Newport Chemical Depot.

The Army is halfway through the elimination process of 1,269 tons of VX, which has produced nearly 720,000 gallons of caustic wastewater now being stored at the depot.

Efforts to have the waste treated at plants in Ohio and New Jersey have been scrapped in the face of public and political opposition.

“This is the Army’s last chance,” a source said.  If it cannot move the waste to Texas, the Army “will have to design, build, permit, test and operate an on-site secondary treatment facility.”  There are no funds designated in coming years for such a plant, the development of which “could extend by three to five years the destruction of VX nerve agent at Newport,” the source said.

The Army Chemical Materials Agency hopes to begin waste shipments as soon as April 20.  Two-to-six-truck convoys would pass through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, C&EN reported.

The U.S. interpretation of the Chemical Weapons Convention says that it cannot receive credit for elimination of chemical weapons until any resultant waste is also treated.  Incinerating at least some of the hydrolysate would help the Army meet its treaty obligation to eliminate 45 percent of its total stockpile by the end of this year.

However, “the Army is not going to be able to ship all of the stored hydrolysate to Texas before a lawsuit or injunction stops the transport,” a source said.

The Chemical Weapons Working Group and other environmental organizations plan “to notify the Army and Veolia of their intent to sue,” said CWWG head Craig Williams.  The federal lawsuit would be based on “the Army’s inadequate environmental review process” and would seek an injunction against waste transport, he said (Lois Ember, Chemical & Engineering News, April 10).

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