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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Environment - Major pipeline break near Indiana border; Last of VX nerve agent eliminated at Newport

Significant oil spill in Illinois. From the Evansville Courier & Press, a story (with map) by Len Wells that begins:

GOLDEN GATE, Ill. — The weekend pipeline break that released 5,000 barrels of crude oil onto southeastern Illinois fields has been termed a "significant" spill by federal authorities.

Any spill greater than 100,000 gallons is considered "significant" by the Environmental Protection Agency. The spill at Golden Gate, in Wayne County, equals about 210,000 gallons.

A 20-inch transmission line running from a tank farm near Patoka, Ill., to Owensboro, Ky., failed Sunday morning. The site, on the William Rickett farm, is so remote that contractors had to build a nearly two-mile-long gravel road from the closest township road to access it.

The new road will allow oil field vacuum trucks to drive in to suction up oil that has been contained by emergency crews.

Marathon Oil said workers had recovered about a quarter — 1,305 barrels — of the oil as of Tuesday afternoon.

Nerve gas. Deb Kelly reports in the Terre Haute Tribune Star:
On Aug. 8, personnel at the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility confirmed the last ton container of VX had been successfully neutralized, marking the completion of stockpile elimination at the Newport Chemical Depot.

For nearly 40 years, workers at the facility have safely stored 1,269 tons of the Cold War-era liquid chemical agent VX in the steel containers.

Hydrolysate, the resulting byproduct of the neutralization process, is sent to Veolia Environmental Services in Port Arthur, Texas for final disposal. The Army receives Chemical Weapons Convention treaty credit for chemical destruction when the hydrolysate is transferred from shipping containers at Veolia.

“This day marks a tremendous milestone for the workers at Newport, the citizens of Indiana and the rest of the world,” said U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency Director Conrad Whyne. “Newport's stockpile has been safely eliminated, which brings the United States one step closer to fulfilling the commitment of destroying our nations’ chemical weapons.”

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 13, 2008 08:18 AM
Posted to Environment