[GreenYes] FLASH: DuPont abandons VX-nerve poison waste dumping scheme

[Alan Muller <amuller@no.address>]

Friday, January 5, 2006.  Contact:  Alan Muller, 302.834.3466, 302.299.6783

DuPont issued a press release this afternoon, headed "DuPont Elects 
Not to Participate in U.S. Army's Wastewater Proposal."

The release concludes: "...It has become increasingly clear to us 
that the approval process will be lengthy and arduous, even with the 
supportive conclusions reached by the Centers for Disease Control and 
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in their independent 
reviews.  Therefore, we believe it is in the best interests of New 
Jersey and DuPont not to proceed."

(The full text of the DuPont release is available from Green Delaware.)

This is big victory for everybody in the Delaware Valley, and a giant 
vindication for all those who worked very hard to stop DuPont and the 
US Army from dumping treated "VX hydrolysate" into the Delaware River.

People from New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, 
Kentucky, and other states worked together to insist that the 
chemical weapons wastes be treated on site in Indiana, rather than 
shipped around the country for dumping into our waterways.

Elected officials, citizen activists, regulators, in fact, everybody 
with reason and common sense, "just said no!"

Background:

The Army was assigned the responsibility for destroying the various 
stockpiles of VX "nerve agent" in accordance with the international 
Chemical Weapons Convention.

One of these stockpiles is near Newport, Indiana, at the former 
Newport Army Ammunition Plant/Chemical Depot.

After negotiations with community representatives, the Army abandoned 
its original preference to incinerate the VX, and agreed to destroy 
the poison by means of "caustic neutralization" and subsequent 
chemical treatment steps.

But after the "9/11" attacks, the Army sought to partially treat the 
VX in Newport and ship the resulting "hydrolysate" to Dayton, Ohio, 
where it would have ended up, after "treatment," in the Little Miami River.

When community opposition killed this idea, the Army then sought to 
send the hydrolysate to DuPont's Chambers Works on the Delaware River 
in New Jersey.  (This site is one of the largest known toxic water polluters.)

Opposition to the scheme was solid since the idea surfaced in 2003.

We hope that the Army will now come to its senses and revert to the 
original plans for on site treatment.

For additional background information do a search on "VX" at 
<http:///>www.greendel.org.

The list of those deserving recognition for this victory is long and 
incredibly diverse.  Here are a few, with apologies for omissions:

Rob Andrews, Leonard Akers, Dave Bailey, Maddi Breslin, Jim Bryant, 
Tracy Carlucchio, Gina Carola, Dick Cathcart, Jesse Chadderdon, 
Elizabeth Crowe, Sharon Finlayson, John Flaherty, Rick Greene, John 
Hughes, Ellis Jacobs, Robert Knotts, Lisa Marsilli, Hugh McGuire, 
Nancy Merritt, D Morgan, Jane Nogaki, Joe Parrish, Pat Pastore, Laura 
Rench, Bruce Rittman, Jim Rowe, George Weber, Christine Whitehead, 
Craig Williams, Katie Wolfe, and many, many others.

Green Delaware is a community based organization working on 
environment and public health issues.  We try to provide information 
you can use.  Please use it.  Do you want to continue receiving 
information from Green Delaware?  Please consider contributing or 
volunteering.  Reach us at 302.834.3466, greendel@no.address, 
www.greendel.org , Box 69, Port Penn, DE, USA, 19731-0069

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