TWO DAYS OF TESTIMONY IN VX WASTE SHIPMENTS HEARING AFFIRM CITIZENS' OBJECTIONS
Army Admits Material Is Not "Destroyed" under International Treaty Definition

INDIANAPOLIS --Two senior Army officials admitted in federal court in Indianapolis that the VX nerve agent byproducts being shipped from the Newport Army Depot in Indiana, to Port Arthur, Texas are not considered "destroyed" under the definition of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The CWC is an international treaty, to which the U.S. is obligated to abide. "Until this material is destroyed under the treaty definition, it is considered a declared chemical weapon," said Craig Williams, Director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG).

Williams pointed out that Public Law 103-337 explicitly forbids the interstate shipment of chemical weapons. Therefore, he said, the Army's admission that the VX agent is not destroyed until it is unloaded in Texas, means that the shipment of VX hydrolysate across eight states is illegal.

The CWWG, Sierra Club and local groups in Newport and in Port Arthur - the Community In Power Development Association and Citizens Against Incineration at Newport - filed suit against the Army and Veolia Environmental Services for putting communities at risk from the transportation and incineration of the VX liquid byrproduct, called hydrolysate. The trial began on Monday, July 16 and is expected to continue through Wednesday of this week.

In Tuesday's court testimony, one Army witness and two Army contractors admitted that during chemical neutralization operations at Newport, solids from the hydrolysate found in the neutralization reactor showed concentrations of VX at 19 parts per million. The Army considers hydrolysate safe for transportation if levels of VX agent are 20 parts per billion or less - a level one thousand times lower than what was found in the solids. According to government documents, there are solids in the VX hydrolysate being shipped to Texas. "Unfortunately, the Army only tests the liquid portion of the hydrolysate prior to approval for transportation," said Williams.

Dr. Michael Sommer, a forensic environmental chemist from Houston, Texas and an expert witness for plaintiffs in the hearing, stated in testimony today that the analytical methods the Army is using to determine chemical agent concentrations are not necessarily reliable. Sommer noted that the Army's current analytical methods do not meet EPA standards and are "profoundly bogus."

Dr. Neil Carman, air quality researcher and former regulatory official with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, explained to the court today that the Port Arthur, Texas community fits the profile of environmental justice due to high poverty rates and a high people of color population. Carman said that Port Arthur residents, who are already exposed to routine emissions from nearby oil refineries and chemical plants in addition to the Veolia incinerator, would be disproportionately impacted by the burning of 2 million gallons of VX hydrolysate from Newport. The Veolia incinerator does not have any monitors capable of detecting chemical agent.

Plaintiff groups have for years advocated that the Army avoid transportation and improper treatment of the VX hydrolysate, and instead use safe, publicly-acceptable technologies to treat the hydrolysate in Newport.