Judge to hold hearing on bid to block nerve agent waste shipments

By RICK CALLAHAN
Associated Press Writer

INDIANAPOLIS - Opponents of the Army's shipments of nerve agent waste from Indiana to Texas will ask a federal judge Monday to order a halt to the trucks, contending that the liquid waste poses an imminent threat to public health and is more toxic than the Army claims.

U.S. District Judge Larry McKinney has set aside up to three days starting Monday to hear testimony from witnesses for the Army and environmental and activist groups.

The hearing in Indianapolis comes about a month after the Army agreed to suspend the shipments from western Indiana to Port Arthur, Texas, until McKinney decides whether to block the transfers of the waste created by the destruction of the deadly VX nerve agent.

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VX is a Cold War-era chemical weapon so deadly only a tiny droplet can kill a human. It is being destroyed in chemical reactors at Newport, about 30 miles north of Terre Haute.

The lawsuit claims the 900-mile truck shipments of the VX hydrolysate from Newport through eight states to Port Arthur pose "an imminent and substantial endangerment" to public health and the environment and violate state and federal laws.

Passing thru my (and your) backyards.