Veolia opens doors to concerned citizens

By Amy Moore
The Port Arthur News

PORT ARTHUR April 23, 2007 08:53 pm

— With research at hand and questions in mind, Jessie Day attended Veolia Environmental Services’ open house to learn more about the facility’s VX wastewater incineration process.
Recently, Veolia secured a $49 million contract with the Army to incinerate nearly 2 million gallons of a caustic wastewater of the former nerve agent VX, called hydrolysate. To help the community understand the process, Veolia opened their doors to citizens Monday to an informational tour of the facility. Many citizens voiced concerns that the company, Army and local government officials acted too quickly and secretly for them to feel comfortable about the caustic wastewater being treated and destroyed in Southeast Texas.
Day and nearly a dozen other concerned citizens arrived at the plant to tour the facility and to ask questions about the hazardous nature of the former VX nerve gas. After touring the plant, Day said she’s still worried about the hydrolysate coming to Port Arthur.
“I’m just as concerned as before,” she said after arriving back at the plant entrance. “It seems like the Army has done the contract fast and I just wonder about it.”
Gearing up in hard hats and protective eye wear, Veolia employees took van loads of guests on a tour of the plant and explained the incineration process of the caustic VX wastewater, which employees described as toxic as drain cleaner, as well as all other wastes that come to the plant.
Vince Puhl, thermal production line manager, said the closed loop system through which the hydrolysate flows is “a rigorously controlled process” and that every element is caught on camera as part of the international treaty signed by the United States to destroy all chemical weapons.
Pausing at the off-loading area, Puhl told citizens that the VX is turned into wastewater at Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Newport, Ind. and tested for any activity before being shipped to Texas. Arriving at Veolia, the hydrolysate, which does have a high pH and an odor like a skunk, is compressed out of tanker trucks with nitrogen into holding tanks where mixed with water and other low toxicity chemicals to create a blend for incineration.
The blend is then sent through closed pipelines to the 1,400 degree incinerator where the gas elements of the wastewater are separated out and sent to a secondary combustion unit where it is heated further to 2,100 degrees. There, Puhl explained, is where most of the organic compounds are incinerated.
“It is then sent to the WESP where it is dropped to 185 degrees,” he said. “There’s no possible, chemical way it could reform. The temperature prevents formation.”
Veolia officials said the ashes from the incinerator are the only solid product that remains after incineration and those are shipped to a hazardous material landfill in Lake Charles.
Puhl went on to say that an air pollution control train neutralizes and scrubs out acids, “like the Sharper Image air purifier.“
“It adds an electrical charge to capture minute elements,” he said. “What is released from the stacks is 99.9999 percent water vapor.”
Ron Constance, process engineer, said the hydrolysate is subjected to a system that basically incinerates the wastewater twice.
“Everything is waste to us and we approach it all in the safest manner,” Constance said. “Everything we do here is predicated on safety and we want to make sure everyone goes home at the end of the day.”
But Day and her sister, Annette Meaux are still unsure of the system, even though they received letters from Rep. Ted Poe stating that the hydrolysate is safe. The sisters plan to participate in community activist, Hilton Kelley’s proposed protest of future shipments of hydrolysate.
“The community of Port Arthur is not appreciative of what happened,” Meaux said. “It’s not right that we weren’t informed. The company did a good job and did make me more comfortable though.”
With elections about two weeks away, Day said this contract and how local government officials reacted to it will be an issue for her when she heads to the polling booth.
“You know how they say, there’s just something fishy about it,” she said.

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