[CPEO-MEF] Army to suspend VX Hydrolysate shipments

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

CHEMICAL WEAPONS WORKING GROUP
www.cwwg.org   kefcwwg@cwwg.org

for immediate release: Monday, June 18, 2007

ARMY AGREES TO TEMPORARILY STOP SHIPMENT OF NERVE AGENT WASTE TO PORT 
ARTHUR,TEXAS

Army's Voluntary Stand Down on VX Hydrolysate Transportation in Effect 
until Preliminary  Injunction Hearing Date Agreed To and Hearing Is 
Completed

The U.S. Army agreed to temporarily suspend shipments of extremely toxic 
VX warfare agent by-products to Texas from Indiana while the federal 
court in Terre Haute, Indiana sets a date for an Preliminary Injunction 
Hearing on the matter. Papers were filed today requesting such a 
hearing, the date of which is being worked out.

Texas and Indiana citizens groups, joined by two national organizations 
- the Sierra Club and the Chemical Weapons Working Group - were poised 
to file a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) motion late last week but 
opted to request a voluntary "stand-down" from the Army first.  The Army 
accepted under the conditions that: 1) a conference with the court take 
place no later than tomorrow (19 June); and, as a result, 2) the parties 
and the court are able to agree on an expedited hearing and briefing 
schedule regarding the Preliminary Injunction.

The Army began trucking this uniquely hazardous material out of the 
Newport Indiana Depot to be burned in the low-income minority community 
of Port Arthur, Texas, in the dead of night on April 16 without making 
the shipments generally known to citizens in the affected states.

Subsequently, on May 8 citizens filed suit against the shipments after 
requests to stop the transportation were ignored by the Indiana 
Department of Environmental Management, Indiana State Police, federal 
and state elected officials in both Indiana and Texas.

The suit emphasized that the risks associated with transporting the VX 
waste were not fully recognized, primarily due to inadequate analysis of 
the concentrations of VX nerve agent and other deadly compounds, 
including Experimental Agent (EA) 2192 in the tankers hauling the 
material through portions of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, 
Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

Of an estimated two million gallons of the waste, known as VX 
hydrolysate (VXH), approximately 375,000 gallons have already been 
shipped. How much of that has been burned in Port Arthur to date is unknown.

"This is a critical situation here in Port Arthur," said Hilton Kelly, 
Director of the local Community In-Power Development Association. "Not 
only was the community not notified before this operation began, but the 
risks associated with this material continue to be held secret by the 
Army and Veolia Environmental Services, the company accepting and 
burning this waste."

According to Dr. Michael Sommer II, Mr. Kelly's dismay at the secrecy is 
well-founded.  Dr. Sommer, a Houston-based expert in forensic 
environmental chemistry said in his declaration submitted with today's 
court filing, "The proposed analytical test methods the Army developed 
to assure complete neutralization of the VX are wholly inadequate to 
ensure protection of public health and the environmentŠ."

Additionally, serious questions regarding the concentrations of VX and 
EA 2192 in the VXH and the dangers posed during transportation of the 
waste have been raised by the citizens in Indiana, where the Army has 
ignored local government resolutions opposing putting this material on 
the road.

According to Dr. Fred Millar, a Virginia-based expert on homeland 
security, hazardous materials transportation and chemical accident 
prevention, the Army's transportation risk estimates "do not consider 
any potential release of VX or EA2192 as a result of possible crash, 
fire, or of a possible terrorist attack, including hijacking, during or 
prior to transport."  Dr. Millar goes on to say, "The release and 
dispersion from a truck containing material including a residual 
quantity of VX, as with any of a number of other ultra-hazardous 
materials in transportation, Š could potentially cause many deaths and 
injuriesŠ."

Sara Morgan of Montezuma, Indiana and a local leader of Citizens Against 
Incineration at Newport has been questioning the Army's decision to ship 
this by-product across country for years. "We had an agreed to and 
permitted method of treating this waste right here," she said. "Folks 
along the transportation corridor have no idea of the risks associated 
with this material."

The Army has never burned agent by-products such as VXH, which contains 
inadequately measured quantities of VX and EA2192.  And, unconscionably, 
the Veolia plant in Port Arthur has no monitors capable of determining 
if these materials have been completely combusted or are instead being 
emitted from their smokestacks into the Port Arthur community.

According to Dr. Neil Carman, a former environmental regulatory official 
for the Texas Air Control Board (now the Texas Commission on 
Environmental Quality), "The danger from incineration of VX hydrolysate 
liquid waste is especially egregious because the Port Arthur incinerator 
facility is not required to use or be equipped with a stack VX 
continuous emissions monitoring systemŠ."

Dr. Carman also points out that no trial burns are even being done at 
the Veolia incinerator to determine the effectiveness of burning this 
material; the VXH will be mixed with other waste without identifying the 
combination of chemicals emitted. It is also a clear case of 
environmental injustice.  "Environmental justice in Port Arthur-Golden 
Triangle Gulf Coast region is a serious concern due to the minority 
demographics, significant numbers of low income families close to or in 
povertyŠ", said Carman in his declaration submitted to the court today.

Both Dr. Carman and Dr. Sommer challenge the Army's position that VX 
cannot reform in the mixture while waiting to be shipped from Indiana or 
while in holding tanks in Texas.  Carman's declaration states, "The 
National Research Council report confirms that if the pH is allowed to 
drop VX will reform."

Dr. Sommer also points out that separation during storage is a problem 
being ignored by the Army. "In practice, the neutralized hydrolysate 
from the caustic hydrolysis of VX has an aqueous phase, an organic phase 
and a solid phase with differing VX and VX degradation products 
distributed within each phase. The Army in its Environmental Assessment 
did not report details of the concentrations of VX, EA2192 or other 
toxic contaminants present in each phase."

Chemical Weapons Working Group Director, Craig Williams noted that 
during the Army's attempts to ship this same material to Ohio and then 
New Jersey, citizens repeatedly requested to have the process opened up 
for an independent review of the sampling and analysis process, but such 
requests were ignored or refused.  This has left little recourse for 
citizens other than litigation in an effort to protect the communities 
affected by the shipment and incineration of the VXH.

"In addition," said Williams, "these shipments violate federal law 
barring interstate transportation of chemical weapons as defined in the 
Chemical Weapons Treaty which this material clearly falls into."

-30-
copies of the filing and the expert declarations are available from the 
CWWG office

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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