Newport Chemical Depot
I'm posting this w/o comment...except that i love how calmly they talk about realizing that the byproduct of VX explods more easily than their engineers had first estimated...:/ wtf!
OFFICIALS POSITIVE ABOUT MEETING CONCERNING SPILL
by Matt Williams
mwilliams@news-gazette.com
Danville - Both local representatives and Newport Chemical Depot officials say they came out of last week's meeting with way to improve communication between the two sides.
The meeting, which was held in the office of state Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, dealt with concerns over a 30-gallon spill June 10 of VX, colorless and odorless nerve agent that can kill a human with a single drop.
At the time, Vermillion County Emergency Management Agency Director Bob Huff said he was not informed properly of the spill.
After Friday's meeting, Huff said the lines of communication should be improved in the case of any future spills.
"I think the meeting went very well and there are some things we can correct to make the communication better between them and us," he said. "We got out of that meeting what we wanted."
During the incident, nobody was in the local EMA office because it occurred over a weekend. Huff said that now the depot will contact the EMA's communications center, which has somebody on duty 24-hours.
Doug Stroud, the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Perparedness Plan coordinator, also thought the meetings proved to be beneficial to both sides.
"We need to get together with the main players in Illinois and discuss these issues," Stroud said. "There is always a need to get together once in a while."
The group also discussed the discovery that the byproduct of the VX, a liquid hydrolysate, has a lower flash point than previously thought. Stroud said engineers are working to find out more about the liquid.
"It's a caustic wastewater," Stroud said. "It's about as caustic as a drain cleaner would be."
Stroud said there should not be any concern with the byproduct because it is sealed safely in steel containers.
The depot, which is 30 miles southeast of Danville, has stored VX for more than 35 years.
The destruction of the stockpile started on May 5 with about 3,000 of the 250,000 gallons already being neutralized.
The process has been stopped since the June 10 spill and will not continue until everything is inspected and found to be safe. Stroud said he has no timetable for when that will be.
Huff said the respective perties agreed to hold an informational meeting in the future to let the public know more about what is going on with the depot. A time and date will be set in the upcoming weeks, he said.
Last week's meeting was called by Black, who could not be reached for comment.
Hey, thanks for this. I linked to it, since it's not on the News-Gazoo site.
http://www.fpmrecords.com/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi
Posted by: Lisa | July 18, 2005 03:48 PM