Re: Moving nerve gas waste is criticized

[Stella Bourassa <Stellalogic@cfl.rr.com>]

Did the Army 'give out this information willingly' or did someone have to
'go snooping around' to find it?  Kudos to the Army if they gave it out
willingly without someone having to 'snoop'.

Here in Florida, on our turnpike, we had a major accident with chemicals
being transported recently.  The wreck shut down the turnpike (not a good
thing around here) for over 12 hours while EOD crews showed up.  The driver
and his wife were seen 'running for their lives' immediately which caused
'questions' due to their truck being 'unmarked'.  The wreckage left behind
looked like something out of 'pictures of Iraq'.  Unfortunately, the story
was 'cut' quickly and without any further 'news articles' about the after
affects of the toxins going up in the air, those exposed to it, etc.

Based on the Army having it's 'way'-will these trucks be clearly marked?
Will it have 'protective trucks' surrounding those carrying these
chemicals-much like the secret service for the president?  Will those
trained in chemical disasters accompanied each convoy-just in case?  Will
each town be prepared by the Army 'just in case'?  How much, exactly, is the
life of the drivers worth and will the Army be willing to 'pay this salary'?
In regards to 'a worse case scenario', does the Army have the funds to
compensate the family of these drivers or those who would be exposed, hurt,
maimed or killed by being in the 'wrong place at the wrong time?'  I would
hope all 'those duckies' would be in order since 'financial feasiblity'
seems to be a 'hot topic' on cleanup.  I believe it should also be a 'hot
topic' to the health and safety of the environment and public.

Stella
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "CPEO Moderator" <cpeo@cpeo.org>
To: <cpeo-military@igc.topica.com>
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2004 3:39 PM
Subject: Moving nerve gas waste is criticized


> BALTIMORE SUN
> Moving nerve gas waste is criticized
> Army planning to dispose of Indiana VX stockpiles, possibly using Md.
> route
> By Heather Dewar
> Originally published February 2, 2004
>
> Sometime this summer, tanker trucks filled with a caustic chemical soup
> of leftovers from a lethal chemical warfare agent will begin rolling
> through the Mid-Atlantic region on a 900-mile journey from an Army
> storage depot in Indiana to a treatment plant in Deepwater, N.J.
>
> At least two 4,000-gallon tankers loaded with breakdown products from
> the nerve agent VX - a slurry of lye, water and the weapon's original
> man-made ingredients - will leave the Newport Chemical Depot every day,
> seven days a week for more than a year under a new Army disposal plan.
>
> The tankers will travel by yet-to-be-determined routes to a DuPont
> chemical waste treatment plant just north of the Delaware Memorial
> Bridge, according to a DuPont spokesman. There, the slurry would go
> through a multistage treatment process before the last remaining wastes
> are discharged into the Delaware River.
>
> This is the Army's second attempt to get rid of Newport's VX. A similar
> proposal alarmed officials in Ohio, where intense local opposition
> scotched plans to dispose of the material in Dayton. In New Jersey and
> neighboring Delaware, environmental groups and members of Congress are
> peppering the Army with questions and concerns.
>
> "We want to see the stockpile of VX destroyed," said John M. Kearney,
> director of Delaware's Clean Air Council, "but safety should be the top
> priority. There's risks in transport, storage and handling all the way
> along the path, and we feel the risks outweigh the benefits."
>
> The VX dispute is the latest example of the problems that arise when the
> Army tries to get rid of some of the world's most dangerous weapons.
> International law requires the United States to destroy its chemical
> stockpiles, stored at seven sites nationwide, including Maryland's
> Aberdeen Proving Ground.
>
> The government sped up plans to destroy the weapons after the attacks of
> Sept. 11, 2001, fearing they would become terrorist targets. Now the
> Army must quickly make a complex set of calculations involving
> experimental chemistry, the odds of an accident - and eventually local
> politics.
>
> This article can be viewed at:
>
http://www.sunspot.net/news/bal-te.nerve02feb02,0,5297885.story?coll=bal-home-headlines
>
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