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EPA OK'd plan to dump nerve agent into Delaware

 

By HARRY YANOSHAK

Bucks County Courier Times

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency won't oppose the U.S. Department of

Defense

and DuPont Co.'s plan to dump a wastewater byproduct of a deadly nerve agent

into

the

Delaware River.

 

The agency said it's assured of a safe treatment for up to 4 million gallons of

caustic

wastewater created in the treatment for VX, a chemical weapon with a

pinhead-size

potency to kill a human.

 

The agent, once neutralized, would be shipped to DuPont's Chambers Works plant

in

Deepwater, N.J., for discharge into the river.

 

" EPA believes that all of our previously identified ecological concerns have

been resolved, "

said Walter Mugdan, director of the agency's Environmental Planning and

Protection

division in New York, in a letter released Friday to CNN and obtained by The

News

Journal

in Wilmington, Del.

 

The agency's position angers opponents of the disposal plan. They're concerned

the

wastewater would harm the Delaware, which supplies drinking water to millions.

Furthermore, opponents say the EPA's opinion is premature and raises more

questions

about the wastewater's effects on river health.

 

The EPA forwarded its findings to the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention,

where

analysts are considering health risks posed by the Army and DuPont's plan. A

final

report

from the CDC is expected to go to the region's congressional delegations in

April.

An

earlier study by the agency was inconclusive as to the health effects of the

discharge.

 

Tracy Carluccio, a spokeswoman for the Delaware Riverkeeper based in Washington

Crossing, criticized the EPA for its action.

 

" This report [by the EPA] is not conclusive in any way, " she said Saturday.

 

Leaking the report " interrupted the normal procedures, " and injected the

EPA's bias into

what was supposed to be an independent review of the data. She's concerned the

EPA's

publicized opinion in favor of the disposal plan would unduly prejudice any

independent

review of the data for the CDC.

 

" It's important from a scientific point of view is that the cumulative impact

of all of these

chemicals is known before you start discharging, " she said.

 

Maya van Rossum, who heads Delaware Riverkeeper, also was critical. " Its

premature

release smacks of strong-arm politics to push the Army's and the present [bush]

Administration's biased agenda. "

 

Delaware Riverkeeper bills itself as " vigilant protectors and defenders of

the river. "

 

Delaware and New Jersey opposed an earlier version of the plan, which involved

the

discharge of treated waste into the Delaware from DuPont's Chambers Works plant

in

Deepwater, N.J.

 

 

Government officials in both states have said they're concerned that traces of

VX

and other

toxic byproducts would reach the river even after treatment.

 

Although the EPA found DuPont had proven the discharge would meet federal limits

on

toxic pollutants, the agency recommended additional work, including studies of

fish

and

other aquatic life before treatment begins. The EPA, New Jersey, DuPont and the

Delaware

River Basin Commission would collaborate in those studies.

 

More than 250,000 gallons of VX stored at Indiana are being chemically

neutralized.

The

process creates a wastewater called hydrolysate. About 11 percent of the

government's

VX

stockpile has been neutralized.

 

The hydrolysate, which the Army has compared to liquid drain cleaner, is being

stored

in

mobile containers until the government decides how to dispose of it.

 

John A. Hughes, secretary of Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and

Environmental Control, said he wasn't shocked by the agency's decision, but

needs

to

review the evidence behind it.

 

" We did say early on that it's going to take new technology to make the VX

treatment

acceptable. The treatment level of the original plan was much too low, " Hughes

said.

 

The Delaware agency raised questions about DuPont's original proposal,

eventually

prompting the company to develop a new treatment step that would prevent toxic

leftovers in the wastewater from escaping into the river.

 

Also of concern in Bucks County was the Army's plan to possibly ship the

chemical

by train

through the Morrisville rail yard en route to DuPont's Deepwater plant.

 

Anthony Farina, a spokesman for DuPont, said the company was aware of the EPA's

opinion and has yet to review details.

 

" Certainly we've been working very closely with the EPA in addressing their

concerns, "

Farina said. " We look forward to seeing the final report when it's completed

and released. "

 

DuPont in mid-2004 said the company could make $13.5 million annually during the

two-

to three-year treatment process. Details of the contract or government payments

to

DuPont during preparations for the work were unavailable.

 

Brendan Gilfillan, a spokesman for New Jersey's governor, said Jon S. Corzine

remains

concerned about the proposal.

 

" We're still very interested in seeing the result of the CDC's study of the

human impact, "

Gilfillan said.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-02262006-618484.html

 

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

 

 

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