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warning!

I just read a disturbing report stating that the federal government plans on dumping old canisters of VX nerve gas into the Delaware River starting next year. They'll be dumping 10,000 gallons/day every day for 2 years.

Supposedly, the government will contracting Dupont, Inc. to detoxify the VX poison to a concentration of ~20ppb (parts per billion) before dumping it into the river.

I'm not typically a worry-wort regarding these things, but even 20ppm concerns me given that a) this chemical was specifically designed to destroy the human nervous system, b) there are no publically-available studies citing the negative effects of acute or chronic exposure to ingesting similar concentrations of VX dissolved in water. I just hope that VX has a short half-life, or we may be living with this stuff for a long time.....including those of us that don't live close to Delaware.

I've just focused on the potential impact on human health--there could be ecological, economic, and social consequences.

What's this country coming to?
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Whoa!!!
Dude, thats just totally uncool!!!
No seriously, this is totally horrifying.
 
Just the gov. up to its usual carelessness, or conspiracy if you so believe. I'd start telling those near the river, start writing letters, and deffinately get in contact with the media to bring light to this crap.
 
My math may suck, because I never liked math.. But here are my calculations of this...
at 20000 gallons per day for 2 years 20000*365*2= 14600000 gallons over the 2 years.
Then lets calculate the 1 part vx per X water 1000000000(gallons)/20(ppb) = 50000000 gallons to 1 part VX
Now, take how much they will dump in over the 2 years and divide that by how many gallons it would take to get 1 gallon of VX 14600000 / 50000000 = .292 (gallons) of VX will go in the water over the 2 year project.
Now I understand this is poisin and is bad stuff etc etc... But written like this, it doesn't look too bad to me. Provided my math doesn't suck (again, i'm pretty sure it does
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Andrew
 
Well, I still would rather have them dump nothing in the river.
Besides, you honestly believe they gonna do all that? You'll be lucky if they detoxify it one tenth as good as they say.
Its like when they were testing atomic bombs 60 miles from Los Angeles... they tested what... like 200 or something there? No wonder all the cancer eh?
 
Wow, I thought that somehow this may have been blown out of proportion or something, but I did a search and it's pretty much as bad as it sounds.

Further research in to the matter leads me to believe that I lived in the state, I would be making a hell of a stink. I know this stuff has to be treated somewhere, but the army has not allowed sufficient time for public comments, they have not consultated with the US Fish and Wildlife service (as is required by the Endangered Species Act,) and the list goes on and on. Hell, the army isn't even performing an environmental impact study!

Yeah, for anyone thinking of defending this, don't even bother trying: the army has not been following procedure, and has not been taking the appropriate steps. Period.

How things have changed over the past few months, I'm not sure though... ?
 
For more info on all the bad the army is doing with this wepon.. you can view this page.. there are quite a few new articles about VX....
http://www.cma.army.mil/home.aspx
Andrew
 
Nowadays there are more watchdog groups checking into these sort of things, due to the readily accessability of news via the web etc. The sad truth is, they're dumping stuff right outside Camden ,NJ. Camden is a city in the throws of despair, and was just named the most dangerous city to live in for the second year in a row. Most citizens in this area don't have access to a computer, or the spare cash to buy the newspaper on a regular basis. They probably don't even know this stuff is being dumped in the back yards. I somehow feel there's some major kickbacks being paid, and only a small token being paid to the citizens of this area to reassure them. It is scary knowing this stuff is being dumped less than 100 miles from NY city to the north, Phila. less than 25 miles and DC about 150 to the south.
Be afraid, be very afraid! NJ already has the most superfund cleanup sites, and I repeat still has, even though the govt designated these areas for cleanup starting in 1978, not one of these areas have been cleaned up yet(I think there are 17 such sites in NJ). NJ the most populated state per sq/mile and the most cancerous!
 
NJ isn't the most cancerous state, assuming you mean having the highest cancer rate.  But if you mean something else, you might be right.

I don't know if this'll work, but here's a county by county map of the age adjusted rate of all cancers map I created at the National Cancer Institute site - http://statecancerprofiles.cancer.gov/map....6&0#map.  If the link doesn't work, you can create your own map at http://statecancerprofiles.cancer.gov/map/map.html.

Yes, the Camden area is hot, but compare it to the huge red blotch centered at the junction Kentucky, North Carolina, & West Virginia or all the red on the Gulf Coast or up along the river in Mississippi and Arkansas.  If I were in NJ, I'd be much more worried about what the chemical and pharmaceutical industries are already discharging than about the nerve gas that's being added to the soup.
 
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[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Now, take how much they will dump in over the 2 years and divide that by how many gallons it would take to get 1 gallon of VX 14600000 / 50000000 = .292 (gallons) of VX will go in the water over the 2 year project.
Now I understand this is poisin and is bad stuff etc etc... But written like this, it doesn't look too bad to me

Hehe--your math is sound and this is the arguement I use on others when they rant about similar things. However, I'm concerned with this particular chemical given that it was designed to be extremelly effective at destroying the human nervous system at very low doses. Moreover, it is being dumped into a river serving millions of humans, as opposed to a nonpopulated desolate region. Lastly, there are many individuals with preexisting neurological conditions may be astonishingly sensitive to exposure to a human neurotoxin.

Region-specific research must be conducted in order to determine whether the Delaware River and adjoining watersheds (and the citizens that rely on them) will be significantly affected by this and, if so, for how long.

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]The sad truth is, they're dumping stuff right outside Camden ,NJ. Camden is a city in the throws of despair,

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Just the gov. up to its usual carelessness,

I wasn't aware of the River's proximity to Camden, NJ. This could be another example of exploitation of the politically disenfranchised. It happened in my state last year: a large incinerator was built in one of the poorest and least politically connected cities.

I believe this is the best country in the world and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but I think these examples show that there's room for lots of improvements.

On a lighter note....hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
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