Injunction puts VX byproduct shipments on hold until ruling from federal judge

Neutralization of nerve agent to continue

By Howard Greninger
The Tribune-Star

Shipment of hydrolysate, a byproduct of the neutralization process for the chemical nerve agent VX, from the Newport Chemical Depot has ceased until a federal judge rules after a preliminary injunctive hearing scheduled for July 16.

The Chemical Weapons Working Group, a coalition of Texas and Indiana citizens' groups where chemical weapons are stored, and the Sierra Club on Monday filed a motion to request the hearing. Larry J. McKinney, chief judge of the U.S. Southern District of Indiana, on Tuesday scheduled the hearing.

Meanwhile, neutralization of VX nerve agent is scheduled to continue on Thursday, said depot spokeswoman Terry Arthur.

The facility is now performing routine maintenance work before neutralization resumes, Arthur said.

The Newport Chemical Depot has the capability to store all remaining hydrolysate, Arthur said.

As of Tuesday, the Army had neutralized about 169,528 gallons or 56 percent of the agent stockpile at the chemical depot in Vermillion County, about 25 miles north of Terre Haute.

The United States has received credit for destroying 579,883 pounds of the Newport stockpile under the Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty.

Neutralization of the nerve agent VX began on May 5, 2005, with 50 percent of the stockpile neutralized on April 26.

VX was produced at the depot from 1962 to 1968.

Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, said a main concern is that the Army-contracted Veolia plant in Port Arthur, Texas, has no monitors capable of determining if agent byproducts have been completely burned or instead are being emitted from smokestacks into the Port Arthur community.

"The Army proceeded to secretly negotiate and sign a contract with this facility in Port Arthur, Texas and not announce it until after the deal was cut and trucks were on the road," Williams said.

"There are people from both communities from Indiana and Texas along with some national groups advocating that [the Army] return to the original agreed-to and much more protective approach of treating this material right where it was created," Williams said.

The Army has said it has met all requirements of the U.S. Department of Transportation to ship the hydrolysate. Williams disagrees.

"We don't believe that their analytical process to make the determination that this material is free of VX agent itself and some of its [byproducts] which are equally toxic is an accurate representation of what is in this waste," Williams said.

"If that is the case, which we believe it is, then they are in violation of federal law which bars the interstate transportation of chemical weapons or material," Williams said.

"We believe that because this material is being mischaracterized and has higher concentrations of VX and other experimental agents in it, and there is no monitoring capability for that particular type of deadly substance at Veolia. The citizens [at Port Arthur] are being put at an unnecessary risk of being exposed to this chemical warfare agent without their knowledge because there is no capability of monitoring."

Greg Mahall, spokesman for the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, said the Army "is still firm in our belief that what we have done is safe and protective. It has been protective of the workers, our communities and the environment.

"We have had 103 trucks that went down [from Newport to Port Arthur] without an incident, which is almost 25 percent of our anticipated total of trucks, so we still think we are in the right on this one," Mahall said.

The Veolia plant has received 362,000 gallons of hydrolysate, Mahall said. As of June 15, the plant had destroyed 340,000 gallons of hydrolysate.

"We think we are safe and history to date has been pretty good," Mahall said.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.