Newport Chemical Depot

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The Newport Chemical Depot is a bulk chemical storage and destruction facility in west central Indiana, thirty miles north of Terre Haute operated by the United States Army. The total area of the depot is 7,098 acres (28.7 km²), with easement rights over an additional 1,400 acres (5.7 km²).

Newport was originally founded during World War II to produce RDX, a conventional explosive. During the 1950s, it was used to produce heavy water for the U.S. nuclear weapons program. Beginning in 1961, Newport became a site for chemical weapons manufacturing, producing the entire U.S. stockpile of VX nerve agent. It is now used to store securely and gradually neutralize part of this stockpile, some 1,270 tons (1,152 metric tons) being stored here. This was 4.1% of the entire U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons at the time the Chemical Weapons Convention went into effect.

In 1999, the Army announced the awarding of a disposal contract to Parsons Infrastructure & Technology, Inc. More than 500 civilian employees work at the facility. They are overseen by an installation commander, a civilian site project manager, reporting to the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, and a board of civilian government overseers called the Indiana Citizens' Advisory Commission. The board's members are appointed by the state governor.

The disposal project has experienced several delays, but on May 5, 2005, the facility announced that it would finally begin pumping VX into a completed disposal unit. The unit consists of a chemical reactor in which the VX is mixed with water and sodium hydroxide, heated to 194°F (90°Celsius) and stirred using mechanical paddles. This is a different method than the incineration which has been the primary manner of chemical agent destruction at other installations. The off-site transport of the resulting wastewater for further treatment was one cause of delay in the program. Wasterwater contain small traces of VX (less than 20 ppm) as well as 4 main chemical byproducts. Since both Permafix and DuPont ultimately decided not to accept the wastewater for treatment, it is being stored on-site while the Army investigates other option including building an on-site water treatment plant.

A test neutralization run began at 9 AM the morning of May 6, 2005. On May 9, the Army announced the test had been successful. After encountering initial difficulties when the temperature in the reactor grew too high, workers were able to adjust the speed of the device and turn 180 gallons of VX and water into a caustic but far less lethal compound that can be further reprocessed into an inert substance. As of February 6, 2006, the Army has destroyed approximately 1,040,917 pounds (472 metric tons) of VX (approximately 123,335 gallons). This represents 41 percent of the original Newport stockpile.

Security at the facility has been contracted since the depot's inception in 1941. Following the tragic events of September 11, the contractor (Mason & Hanger Corp.) was supplemented by a complement of National Guard. The soldiers were withdrawn on April 14, 2005 once the Army increased and certified the highly-trained contract security force.

[edit] Timeline of VX at Newport

1962-1968 VX produced at Newport
1969 President Richard Nixon issues a unilateral decree halting production and transport of chemical weapons, stranding the last two batches of VX at Newport
1999 Contract for disposal of VX awarded.
2001-D Co. 1st Battalion 502nd Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division is assigned to secure the facility shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
2005 Destruction of VX begins on May 5
2005 October, 25 tons (23 metric tons) destroyed, less than 2.5% of stockpile[1]
2006 April, 180 tons (163 metric tons) destroyed, 14% of stockpile
2006 July, 274 tons (249 metric tons) of VX destroyed, 22% of stockpile
2007 January, 470 tons (426 metric tons) destroyed, 37% of stockpile[2]
2007 February, 520 tons (472 metric tons) destroyed, 41% of stockpile[3]