U.S. Army officials are considering whether to store onsite a chemical byproduct of their efforts to neutralize the deadly nerve agent VX at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Nov. 19, 2002).

Parsons Engineering, which built and will operate the Newport depot’s VX disposal plant, has received approval to begin examining the construction of an onsite tank farm to store the hydrolysate byproduct created during VX neutralization, according to Jeff Brubaker, Army site project manager (see GSN, June 18).  While the neutralization is expected to produce about 900,000 gallons of byproduct, the depot only has the capacity to store about 30,000 gallons, AP reported.

The Army, which is set to begin the VX neutralization in October, wants to take the byproduct to a plant in Dayton, Ohio, for further processing, but area residents oppose the plan.  Additional byproduct storage capacity onsite at the depot would allow the disposal effort to continue even if the Dayton treatment plant could not be used, AP reported.

“We are committed to start and complete the destruction of VX as quickly and safely as possible,” Brubaker said (Associated Press/WAVE Television, July 2).

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