Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Dumping in the Delaware

The reckless, poorly planned destruction of our useless chemical weapons continues to be far more of a threat to our well-being than a foreign CW attack ever was:

A process to destroy stockpiles of the nerve agent VX may not completely remove the presence of the deadly chemical set for ultimate disposal at the DuPont Chambers Works in Salem County, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study due for release today concludes.
The process in question - which I've discussed elsewhere in regards to mustard gas - is alkaline hydrolysis. In the case of nerve gas, the hydrolysate - the generic term for the end product of hydrolysis - would ideally (for lack of a better word) be a caustic solution of sodium hydroxide with phosphorus and sulfur compounds. Unfortunately, it looks like we may end up with something far worse:
"There is the possibility of trace elements of VX nerve agent in the hydrolysate," U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews, D-1st Dist., of Haddon Heights, said following a CDC briefing Tuesday....Andrews suggested the Army and DuPont "are not sure" if there will be trace elements of VX in the hydrolysate.

[snip]

The CDC expressed concerns about the presence of such metals as cadmium and phosphonic acids -- caustics -- in the hydrolysate.
This bit is just weird. Cadmium metal isn't caustic, and phosphonic acid is a weak corrosive at best. I assume this comes from confusion on the part of the author, but this is a fairly important subject, and it's not that hard to get the facts straight.
"No one has studied what the effect of these caustics are on the river and on health," Andrews suggested.
Again, the author makes it unclear what Andrews is talking about. If he's talking about cadmium, what he's saying is not true at all. The toxicity of cadmium is well known, and there've been many studies on its ecotoxicity and bioaccumulation (in water, particularly). For instance, here's a study on its toxicity to the water-flea Daphnia magna. And here's another, on the freshwater gastropod Biomphalaria glabrata. And here's one more, on the ringed seal. If there's cadmium in the hydrolysate, I'd call that a serious problem whether or not there are also trace amounts of VX. Unfortunately, I can't find the CDC report online, so I have no idea whether the worries over cadmium are justified.

If the Army will be hydrolysing 1200 tons of VX, it's going to end up with a much, much larger volume of hydrolysate (4 million gallons, by one estimate). Putting aside VX or cadmium content, that's an awful lot of caustic material. The Army's current cut-off level for VX detection is, I believe, 20ppb; according to the EPA, that's still sufficient to kill fish as large as striped bass.

Perhaps more important is the question of the hydrolysis byproduct EA2192:
The information provided by the Army to residents did not list EA2192 in its description of the hydrolysate compound....However, a 1998 report by the Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, a division of the National Academies of Science, says "Because EA-2192 retains a phosphorus-sulfur bond, its toxicity is only slightly reduced from the toxicity of VX."
There's more technical info on the toxicity and persistence of EA2192 here. While the current hydrolysis process seems to reduce EA2192 considerably, it looks to me as though trace amounts may still be present. My opinion, for what little it's worth, is this: We'd be much better off not dumping thousands of tons of VX hydrolysate in the Delaware River. But then, you knew that already!

Meanwhile, in Colorado, the Pentagon continues to drag its feet on destroying 280,000 mustard-gas shells:
[L]ast week, the Pentagon official in charge of the disposal program, Patrick Wakefield, had the audacity to claim that Pueblo was being delayed due to budget overruns. He further said the project won't get any money next year - and, in fact, full demolition of its munitions will be delayed until 2021, nine years after the deadline.

The delay is clearly unacceptable, as is Wakefield's explanation. The six incineration projects Wakefield favors elsewhere in the country will cost more than $4 billion each, and all are far behind schedule.

10 comments:

JMS said...

It is ironic that weapons of mass destruction are considered horrific when used in battle - yet dumping then on American soil is just fine.

better for you than a cheeseburger, I'll bet.

Anonymous said...

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz...

Phila said...

Monkeygrinder,

Yeah, it's an interesting form of "patriotism," isn't it? And in the Delaware river, no less.

And Anon...it's not my fault you're stupid. There are about ten million blogs out there; go find one you like, 'kay?

Anonymous said...

Don't listen to Anon.. Some of us like to be enlightened about certain subjects.

Great post.

Anonymous said...

P - Another great post, and one that strikes very close to home. PublicOrgTheory is...gulp...based in Delaware.

Anonymous said...

I work at one of the chemical weapons dismanteling facilities which you claim to be "far behind schedule". Get your facts straight. Our schedule and current status is out there for public record. Authoritative proclamations that are false give impressions that the rest of your material is likewise.

Phila said...

I work at one of the chemical weapons dismanteling facilities which you claim to be "far behind schedule".

The phrase "far behind schedule" comes from the Denver Post. Take it up with them.

I note that you don't provide links to the "schedule and current status" to which you refer. How hard would that have been?

Authoritative proclamations that are false give impressions that the rest of your material is likewise.

None of my "proclamations" were authoritative, and most of 'em were heavily qualified and clearly identified as personal opinion.

In other words, fuck off.

Anonymous said...

To all concerned,
My Dear Brother Patrick J. Wakefield died on 8-13-06.
I can promise you all that he was as honest as the sunrise. If you understand politics and "PC", you will know what I mean when I say; he was only doing his job as dictated by the higher ups. His 25 years with the government was his childhood dream come true.
He was a very proud Airborne Green Beret, husband and loving brother.
I will never be the same without my best friend.
God Bless you all,
Tom
ttowey@cox.net

Phila said...

I will never be the same without my best friend.
God Bless you all,
Tom
ttowey@cox.net


I'm sorry for your loss. I had no personal animus against Mr. Wakefield, and no reason to doubt that what you say is true. His name appears in this post only because I quoted the Denver Post editorial.

Anonymous said...

1223
I am his other brother brother mike. I also can assure you that THIS WAS HIS DREAM JOB, Few of us will ever live to say that we achievied this, Please note that my brother honesty was the most important thing you could ever bring to the table. He took his job very seriously and what ever he said truly came from the heart. mike