Army wins suit to move chemical waste

[unhappycamper]

Army wins suit to move chemical waste
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Sep 26, 2008 6:11:56 EDT

INDIANAPOLIS — The Army can finish shipping chemical waste from the destruction of a deadly nerve agent in Indiana to an incinerator in Texas, a judge has ruled.

Most of the waste has already been sent to Texas. The last shipment left western Indiana on Sept. 4. The waste was the neutralized remains from VX nerve agent that was destroyed under an international treaty requiring the U.S. to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile.

U.S. District Judge Larry McKinney on Monday granted the Army’s request for summary judgment in the lawsuit filed by the environmental group Sierra Club and other organizations.

The lawsuit contended the shipments were illegal and that the Army had not fully assessed the risk of shipping 1,513,994 gallons of waste some 900 miles from the Newport Chemical Depot to Port Arthur, Texas.

The groups also argued that the waste, called hydrolysate, was more dangerous than the Army maintained. VX, from which the waste came, is a Cold War-era chemical weapon so deadly that just a tiny droplet can kill a human.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/ap_nerveagent_092608/%2e