The News

Published August 03, 2007 08:00 pm

VX waste shipments heading back to Port Arthur

The Port Arthur News

By Ashley Sanders
The News Staff Writer

A judge Friday denied a request to block truck shipments of nerve agent waste from traveling from Indiana to Veolia’s Port Arthur incinerator.

The federal judge says environmental groups, including Port Arthur's Community In-Power and Development Association (CIDA), failed to make their case that the Army did not take into full account the risks involved in moving the neutralized VX nerve agent waste.

U.S. District Judge Larry McKinney also ruled the Army had considered the scientific evidence before concluding that the deadly VX would not reform into caustic liquid waste.

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 Port Arthur.

According to the suit, the environmental groups believed 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.

"Needless to say, we're disappointed," said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, one of the plaintiff organizations in the suit.

The citizens groups said they plan on seeking an immediate reconsideration by the judge on several issues, "including, but not limited to, the judge's apparent lack of ruling on the claim that shipping such material is prohibited by federal law."

According to Williams, the citizens groups hope to have a Motion for Reconsideration before the judge early next week. If denied they plan to appeal to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

The initial hearing began July 16.

The first shipment of hydrolysate arrived at Veolia on April 16 as part of 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 in a previous interview with The News that Veolia has received 101 shipments and burned 72.

Veolia representatives have maintained throughout the hearing process that the wastewater is safe and causes no harm to the public during incineration.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.