|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
DuPont VX Test Sparks Official Queries
DuPont processed effluent from tests on 25 liters of a VX nerve agent byproduct at a facility that dumps wastewater into the Delaware River without telling environmental regulators in Delaware or New Jersey, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, April 19). DuPont has proposed using a New Jersey facility to treat up to 4 million gallons of hydrolysate, a byproduct of the planned neutralization of more than 1,200 tons of VX agent at the U.S. Army’s Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana. The facility tested treatment of 25 liters last year, and then processed the effluent with other wastewater, AP said. “That was not real smart and not a great idea,” said John Hughes, secretary of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. New Jersey officials are trying to discover precisely what DuPont did, said Samuel Wolfe, assistant commissioner of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. “We did not hear about this before it happened,” Wolfe said yesterday. DuPont spokesman Anthony Farina issued a statement saying DuPont’s actions were safely conducted under New Jersey permits. “The samples of wastewater were consumed in the biotreatability study — removing the hazardous characteristics of the wastewater — in both pretreatment and treatment stages in our labs,” the statement said. “The result was a clear, nontoxic effluent,” it added. “The resulting effluent from the study was collected and processed with the daily 15 million gallons of wastewater in the wastewater treatment facility as part of the unique DuPont-patented technology process,” the statement added (Randall Chase, Associated Press/Newsday, May 6).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
