No VX Nerve Agent
for New Jersey - First Environmental Victory for
2007
By Gina Carola, NJ Sierra Club,
Delaware River Issues Coordinator
On January 5, DuPont of Deepwater
NJ announced that the company was no
longer pursuing the award of a contract
from the U.S. Army to dispose of VX
nerve gas hydrolysate, a by-product of
the process of destroying stockpiles that
are currently stored in Newport,
Indiana. In announcing the decision, a
DuPont spokesperson noted that the
lengthy, arduous approval process and
public opposition brought them to the
conclusion that it would be in the best
interests of New Jersey and DuPont not
to proceed.
This victory did not come easily.
Three years ago, when DuPont and the
Army reached an agreement to ship the
VX nerve agent from Indiana across several states to
New Jersey for treatment, our Sierra Club Chapter joined
with Delaware Riverkeeper, Green Delaware
and Concerned Indiana Residents, and
other groups, to defeat the project.
Congressman Rob Andrews, D- NJ 1st
Congressional District, was the first
elected official to jump in to help the
opposition and defend NJ’s environment
and the health of the Delaware
River eco-system. Congressmen Saxton
and LoBiondo soon joined forces along
with then-Senator Corzine. Our
extreme gratitude goes out to these
elected officials and to all who wrote a
letter, made a phone call, attended a
hearing or kept their friends and neighbors
informed.
(The
Jersey Sierran, Vol 36, No. 2, April-June 2007, page
2)
Update: Campaign to Block VX
Nerve Gas Disposal in NJ
 Thanks
to the coordinated effort of
environmental activists the U.S.
Army’s plan to bring the deadly VX nerve agent to South Jersey for treatment
is on hold. 14 organizations
from four states were represented
at an event in Deepwater, NJ
where they spoke about the unnecessary
risks of transporting the hydrolysate
to treat it in New Jersey, and why destroying the hydrolysate safely in Indiana – as
the Army had originally planned – is
the better option. Support
of three members of the New Jersey’s
congressional delegation aided in delaying the Army's plan. (See Jul-Sept
2006 issue of the Sierran for
details on this project)
Congressmen
Rob Andrews, D-Haddon Heights, Jim
Saxton, R-Mount Holly, and Frank
LoBiondo, R-Ventnor have prevailed in
their efforts to attach an amendment to the
National Defense Authorization Act that
will delay the transport of the VX nerve
agent until the Congressional General
Accounting Office has had a chance to
study the proposal. The GAO is a bipartisan,
investigative arm of Congress.
>>> read more in The
Jersey Sierran (Jan-Mar 07) by Gina Carola, Sierra
Club, Delaware Issues Coordinator
Nerve Agent to be shipped to Deepwater, NJ
April 6, 2006.
Groups from 5 states unite in joint
press events in Indiana and New Jersey, to oppose the
U.S. Army’s
plan to ship nerve agent hydrolysate form the Newport
Army Depot in Indiana to a DuPont facility in Deepwater,
New Jersey. >>>
FULL STORY
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