Published June 18, 2007 08:09 pm

Veolia to temporarily stop receiving VX wastewater

Mary Meaux
The Port Arthur News

PORT ARTHUR —

Several environmental groups claimed a small victory Monday with the temporary suspension of caustic wastewater being sent to and destroyed by Veolia Environmental Services.

The U.S. Army has agreed to temporarily suspend the shipments of a former nerve gas agent, now in the form of caustic wastewater, from Indiana while the federal court in Terre Haute, Ind. sets a date for a preliminary injunction hearing on the matter.

Hilton Kelley, director of Port Arthur's Community In-Power Development Association, heard of the news Monday.

"We are very excited," he said. "This is a victory, no matter how small. While the objective was to stop the trucks from coming to Port Arthur, we were able to get the Army to temporarily agree to stop shipments until this is heard in court."

The first shipment arrived at Veolia on April 16 as part a $49 million contract with the U.S. Army to destroy the VX wastewater at its Port Arthur facility -- one of only three facilities in the nation with the necessary equipment to do so.

Dan Duncan, environmental, health and safety manager for Veolia Environmental Services, said to date they have received 101 shipments and burned 72. The remaining product will continue to be managed safely in the interim.

Duncan is confident of the safety of the incineration process and refers to a recent trip he made with local authorities to a facility in Newport, Ind. Local officials who took the trip include Jefferson County Emergency Management Coordinator Greg Fountain, Port Arthur Emergency Management Coordinator/Deputy Police Chief John Owens and a representative of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

"We observed the destruction, sampling and analysis of the product," Duncan said.

But Kelley doesn't feel the process is safe.

CIDA, along with The Sierra Club, Chemical Weapons Working Group and Citizens Against Incineration at Newport filed suit in an Indiana courtroom in May to keep shipments of the caustic wastewater from being transported from a government base in Indiana to Veolia's Port Arthur incinerator.

According to the suit, the environmental groups believe the wastewater shipments violate state and federal environmental laws. Additionally, the groups also want the government to study the material’s environmental impact and to investigate other ways to destroy the nerve gas' by-product.

Both the U.S. Army and Veolia are listed as defendants in the suit.

"There are too many unanswered questions," Kelley said.

One issue of concern is the possibility of the regeneration of the VX product if the pH level is allowed to drop while the product is in storage for a long period of time, an idea Duncan wants to debunk.

"Our opponents feel the agent could reform in an organic layer of wastewater, something we believe is not true," he said. "An excess of sodium hydroxide is used to prevent the agent from reforming. The military has been sampling the oldest of the containers and have found zero."

While Veolia is less than 25 percent finished with the project, Duncan is optimistic that once the judge looks at the facts in the case the project will begin to move along once again.

Kelley continues to believe the idea of bringing the caustic wastewater to the area was not handled properly by city and local officials as well as Veolia. There were no public meetings to allow citizens to voice their concerns, he said.

The environmentalist vows to continue his fight to keep the product out of the area and will try the Texas court system if the issue is allowed in Indiana.