VX wastewater heads to PA

The Port Arthur News

April 11, 2007 07:50 pm

— By Ashley Sanders
The News staff writer
The city of Port Arthur has become synonymous for chemicals — petrochemicals, pesticides and polyethylene just to name a few. But it is a new chemical that is heading to the “City by the Sea” that has stirred up local controversy.
Veolia Environmental Services, located on TX 73 just west of Taylor’s Bayou, recently secured a $49 million contract with the U.S. Army to provide incineration services for nerve gas wastewater currently stored at the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Newport, Ind.
“What the Army does in Indiana is break down the nerve agent VX,” Mitch Osborne, general manager for Veolia’s Port Arthur incinerator, said in an interview Wednesday. “The chemical can not reform after it is destroyed and what we will be receiving at our site is the caustic wastewater (hydrolysate).”
According to Osborne, the VX agent is mixed with hot sodium hydroxide and water at the Indiana facility to completely destroy any toxic materials. The U.S. Army has been destroying the nerve gas since 2005 under the treaty obligations of the international Chemical Weapons Convention. The Army has not produced any new nerve gas since the late 1960s, and is currently stockpiling the wastewater produced in the VX destruction process at their Indiana site.
“What will be shipped to Port Arthur is only a moderate hazard,” Osborne said. “The wastewater contains absolutely no VX. It has a high pH and an odor like a skunk because of the sulfur. But the odor is harmless.”
“This wastewater has none of the chemical, physical or toxic characteristics of the agent being destroyed in Newport,” Osborne added. “It differs very little from the wide variety of hazardous wastes managed safely at the Veolia incinerator on a daily basis.”
But a local community watchdog group wants to know why Port Arthur was selected for the final incinerator job if the waste water poses no physical threat.
In a statement, Hilton Kelley, the director of Port Arthur's Community In-Power Development Association, said his group will fight the Army's plan, which he called “a classic case of environmental injustice.”
“Southeast Texas should not be the dumping ground for waste that no one else is willing to take,” said Kelley, who lives in Port Arthur. “If it's not good for the community from which it came then it's not good for our communities in Texas.”
Osborne explained that there are very few commercial incinerators left in the U.S. and that his company was delighted to be selected for the project by the Army.
Two local officials said they support Osborne and Veolia in their efforts to bring additional financial resources not only to their facility, but also to Port Arthur.
“My main concern is obviously the impact this project could have on the health and environment of Port Arthur residents,” District 5 Councilman John Beard, Jr. said Wednesday via telephone interview. “From the information I have on the surface, however, it looks like we will avoid any hazards. What is important for people to know is that this chemical is not VX.”
Beard said he has confidence in Veolia’s plan to contain the material at all stages. He added, however, that he wants citizens to be aware of the company’s project and for all sides to voice their concerns and opinions.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Waymon Hallmark said he recently met with Osborne and is “satisfied with the company’s safety plan.”
“We are excited for them that they were chosen to do this,” Hallmark said of Veolia’s contract with the Army. “This is going to mean a great deal for their facility. They have a great safety record and I guess that is why they were selected for the job.”
Hallmark said the county has researched the proposed project and that they are satisfied with the conditions of the contract.
“This means a great deal to the 200 employees working at Veolia,” Hallmark added. “This gives them job security.”
Several groups are planning to sue the Army in a bid to block Veolia from trucking the caustic wastewater about 1,000 miles from Indiana to Texas.
The contract with Veolia, a division of Paris-based Veolia Environment, comes three months after DuPont Co. dropped out of a plan to treat the hydrolysate at its Deepwater, N.J., plant, citing strong public opposition.
The Army finalized its contract on April 9 with Veolia, which will truck the waste from the Newport Chemical Depot in western Indiana to the company's permitted incinerators in Port Arthur, said Army spokesman Greg Mahall.
“This is our path forward for handling the hydrolysate, and we'll see how it plays out," said Mahall, adding that the Army is prepared for the possibility of legal action against the plan.
He said the contract includes trucking and incinerating all of the hydrolysate produced by an ongoing effort to destroy in chemical reactors Newport's stockpile of about 250,000 gallons of VX.
The VX destruction project, which began in May 2005, is about 48 percent complete and is expected to produce about 1.8 million gallons of hydrolysate.
Osborne said safety is key in the transportation process of the wastewater.
“All of our trucks will travel in convoys,” he explained. “There is a two truck and two driver minimum. We have a sister company on standby for any unforeseen leaks, although we do not anticipate any leaks. We also have a emergency response plan in effect.”
Mahall said Veolia is working on a transportation plan to ship the hydrolysate atop flatbed trucks in large reinforced storage tanks that each hold about 4,000 gallons of hydrolysate.
For that journey, he said trucks carrying one tank each would pass through at least eight states: Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. That trek, covering about 980 miles is longer than the roughly 740-mile journey that would have been needed to truck the hydrolysate to the DuPont plant.
Osborne said Veolia is working with the Army to discuss its plans with the states along the shipping route.
He said the hydrolysate will be mixed with other water-based liquid waste, fed into the company's incinerators and heated to at least 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit. The remaining solids, such as ash, will be buried in a permitted landfill in Carlyss, La., Osborne said.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality licensed Veolia for the treatment of the VX hydrolysate.
“Veolia's permit allows them to incinerate and dispose of this kind of hazardous waste,” Terry Clawson, spokesperson for TCEQ, said in a statement issued Wednesday. “The waste, hydrolysate, results from the destruction of the nerve agent. It is classified as a hazardous waste only due to its corrosivity."
Osborne, who has taken an active role in meeting with local community leaders about the upcoming project, said his company is happy to speak with representatives in the community to ease any possible fears.
“We want to be good neighbors,” he said. “Our 200 employees live in this community and we want to keep everyone safe, including Southeast Texas residents and our employees.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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