VX is the most lethal chemical warfare agent the U.S. has every produced. Nerve agents are the most toxic and rapidly acting of the known chemical warfare agents.

More than 1,200 tons of lethal VX nerve gas are stored in Newport, Indiana and the U.S. Army needs to get rid of it quick. The nerve gas is part of the U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons, or agents, stored at seven storage sites across the country. The Army's solution--- send it to Port Arthur, Texas.

The nerve gas is being neutralized on location in Indiana and the Army wants to have the toxic waste water byproduct of neutralization, hydrolysate, incinerated at the Veolia treatment plant in West Port Arthur.

The Army tried to ship the waste to two other locations, Dayton, Ohio and then to treatment plant on the Delaware River in New Jersey. In both cases, citizen protest prevented the shipment of toxic waste.

The main concerns of communities opposing shipping hydrolysate for disposal at treatment plants in their areas are:

• The shipments violate federal law barring interstate transportation of chemical weapons as defined in the Chemical Weapons Treaty.
• The facility’s location in Port Arthur, a predominantly poor, African American community brings up questions of environmental racism, whereby companies and government agencies site - whether purposefully or unintentionally - polluting industries in low-income, minority communities.
• The Army did not alert the citizens of Port Arthur prior to shipping the waste to their community.
• Texas is not the first state the Army has tried to pawn off its VXH waste to. It first tried to ship this toxic substance to Dayton, Ohio and later a treatment plant in New Jersey on the Delaware River. Citizens and government leaders in both communities, including the governors of New Jersey and Delaware, vocally opposed the shipment and disposal methods of the toxic waste.
• The decision to ship the waste elsewhere was done despite having developed a system for safe non-emissive treatment on-site at the Army’s facility in Indiana. When the General Accountability Office (GAO) looked into the matter, it determined that there was insufficient justification for the Army to pursue off-site hydrolysate destruction.
• The proposed analytical test methods the Army developed to assure complete neutralization of the VX are wholly inadequate to ensure protection of public health and the environment.
• The Veolia plant in Port Arthur has no monitors capable of determining if the toxic waste has been completely combusted or is instead being emitted into the Port Arthur community.