Newport Chemical Depot
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The Newport Chemical Depot, previously known as the Wabash River Ordnance Works and the Newport Army Ammunition Plant, was a Template:Convert bulk chemical storage and destruction facility that was operated by the United States Army. It is located near Newport, in west central Indiana, thirty-two miles north of Terre Haute. The site was used as a production site for the solid explosives trinitrotolueneTemplate:Citation needed lead and RDX, as well as for heavy water. It also served as the production site for all of the U.S. military's nerve agent VX, when it was in use. All VX nerve agent at the site was neutralized by August 8, 2008. It was the third of the Army's nine chemical depots to completely destroy its stockpile.Template:Citation needed lead
HistoryEdit
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Wabash River Ordnance WorksEdit
Newport was founded during World War II to produce the military high explosive RDX.<ref name=MMPi>Template:Harvnb</ref> The site is Template:Convert, located in west central Indiana, near the Wabash River, two miles south of Newport, Indiana, and thirty-two miles north of Terre Haute.<ref name=MMP14>Template:Harvnb</ref> It was built during 1942–1943 by the E.I. Dupont de Nemours & Co., the original operating contractor of the site, and was originally known as the Wabash River Ordnance Works.<ref name = MMP14/> The site was selected for the availability of labor, its proximity to a railroad line, electric power and water, and its isolated location; furthermore, the location had to be more than Template:Convert away from any coastal waters or international borders.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
Given the immediate need for RDX, the plant was designed to employ the older Woolwich method for manufacturing the explosive. As a result, the plant manufactured lower amounts of RDX compared to the Holston Ordnance Works, which used the more updated Bachmann process.<ref name = MMP14/>
The government originally acquired Template:Convert to build the plant. Although most of the land was used for farming, there were 66 clusters of buildings, six cemeteries, and one church. The cemeteries, one apparently dating to 1810, were still maintained as of 1998. Construction started January 12, 1942, and production started July 20, 1942.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
The plant was mothballed in 1946, but its RDX production was reactivated in 1951 for the Korean War. Production of RDX was suspended again in 1957.<ref name="Historic Properties Report">Template:Cite report</ref>
Heavy water plantEdit
In 1943–1946, the Newport Army Ammunition Plant added a heavy water plant as an element of the Manhattan Project's P-9 Project for construction of nuclear weapons.<ref name=Kelly080720>Template:Citation</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Heavy water production was suspended in 1946 when the plant was mothballed, but resumed in 1952 to produce heavy water for the U.S. nuclear weapons program. Heavy water production ended in 1957.<ref name="Historic Properties Report" />
Production and stockpiling of chemical weaponsEdit
The Army first built a VX facility at the site in 1959 when it was known as the Newport Chemical Plant.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> In 1964, the Wabash River Ordnance Works and the Newport Army Chemical Plant were effectively combined and renamed the Newport Army Ammunition Plant.<ref name=Kelly080720/>
Beginning in 1961, Newport became a site for chemical weapons manufacturing, producing the entire U.S. stockpile of VX nerve agent at the time.Template:Citation needed It was also used to store and eventually neutralize Template:Convert of the agent when the U.S. chemical weapons program was shut down.Template:Citation needed The stored VX amounted to 4.1%Template:According to whom of the U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons in 1997 when the Chemical Weapons Convention came into effect.Template:Citation needed
Chemical weapons disposalEdit
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The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency designed the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (NECDF) for the sole purpose of destroying the VX chemical agent stored at the Newport Chemical Depot.Template:Verification needed Construction of the NECDF was completed in June 2003. The Army began VX agent destruction operations in May 2005, and completed operations in August 2008.Template:Verification needed Destruction was performed on behalf of the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency by Parsons Infrastructure & Technology, Inc. and more than 500 civilian employees worked at the facility. NECDF's permit was officially closed in January 2010. The site was the largest employer in Vermillion County between 1941 and its closing,Template:Verification needed<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Full citation needed</ref> having employed 1,000 workers at its peak.Template:Verification needed<ref name=Kelly080720/>
ProcessEdit
The Army employed neutralization for the destruction of the VX chemical agent.Template:Verification needed<ref name=irvine>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Primary source inlineTemplate:Primary source inline The agent was neutralized in steel reactors by thoroughly mixing it with heated sodium hydroxide and water. Control room operators directed and monitored the entire process remotely, using a state-of-the-art control system. Once agent neutralization was verified at the on-site laboratory, the caustic wastewater was placed into on-site intermodal storage containers awaiting transport for final treatment to Veolia Environmental Services in Port Arthur, Texas.<ref name=irvine /> This process is a different method than incineration which has been the primary manner of chemical agent destruction at other installations.
DelaysEdit
The start of operations was delayed several years due to problems in the arrangements of the disposal of the wastewater, which was anticipated to contains trace amounts of VX and 4 byproducts (less than 20 parts per million), problems that had not been completely solved at the start of destruction. PermafixTemplate:Who and DuPontTemplate:Who did not accept the wastewater for treatment, so it was stored on-site until the Army found another disposal option. Waste was eventually shipped to Port Arthur, Texas where it was processed and incinerated by the company Veolia Environmental Services. A lawsuit delayed the implementation of the shipments, but the suit was ultimately dismissed by a federal judge.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons certified that the stockpile was 100 percent destroyed in September 2009.<ref>Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, letter NV/ODG/42490/09.Template:Full citation needed</ref>Template:Full citation needed
IncidentsEdit
A few incidents have occurred during the destruction process, including a 30-gallon spill of VX during processing on June 10, 2005.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Further incidents involved spills of the hydrolysate end product.Template:Citation needed None of these incidents resulted in any injuries.Template:Citation needed
Base closure and redevelopmentEdit
A 2005 BRAC commission report recommended the depot's closure<ref name=OLDCC>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Army held a Deactivation Ceremony in June 2010, signifying that all activities required for closure of the NECD had been successfully completed. In preparation for closure, the Newport Chemical Depot Reuse Authority (NeCDRA) was created to complete a reuse master plan for the NECD. NeCDRA and its consultant team worked with the local community to create a plan and implementation strategy for the conversion of the depot to civilian use.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> NECD's closure led to the loss of over 675 jobs and rural Vermillion County's largest employer.<ref name=OLDCC/>
NeCDRA sought a civilian reuse plan that would replace lost jobs, maintain environmental quality, and be economically viable and obtained partnerships with Duke Energy and Garmong Construction. The depot has since been transformed into Vermillion Rise Mega Park, a 7,100-acre office and industrial park also containing a 2,806-acre habitat for the endangered Indiana bat. As of October 2020, the park hosted six companies and 130 jobs in addition to leasing land for agricultural purposes, supporting related industries. Additionally, NeCDRA has also obtained local infrastructure improvements, such as a $2.4 million waterline project, a $3 million shell building project, and a $12 million 230-69 kV electrical substation.<ref name=OLDCC/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Timeline of VX production, storage, and destructionEdit
| Year | Event | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1962-1968 | The period of VX production at the Newport Chemical Depot (NCD) is across this span of years.Template:Citation needed | ||
| 1969 | President Richard Nixon unilaterally decrees halt to production and transport of chemical weapons, leaving the final two batches of VX at the NCD.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> | ||
| 1999 | Parsons Infrastructure & Technology is awarded the contract for the disposal of VX at the NCD.<ref name = DID081020>Template:Cite journal</ref> | ||
| 2001 | 1st Battalion, 502d Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) arrives to secure the NCD shortly after the 9/11 attacks.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> The next month, the 1/148 InfTemplate:Who of the Ohio Army National Guard relieved the 101st Airborne.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |
CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
| 2002-2003 | 1/194 Field Artillery of the Iowa Army National GuardTemplate:Who arrives to protect the depot.Template:When<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> | ||
| 2003-2004 | 2/150 Field Artillery of Indiana Army National Guard arrives to protect the depot | ||
| 2005 | On May 5, operations began for the neutralization/destruction of the VX at the depot.<ref>Template:Cite journalTemplate:Full citation needed</ref><ref name = DID081020/> | ||
| 2008 | On August 8, all operations to neutralize/destroy all VX stored at the depot were completed.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> | |
| 2010 | On June 17, the depot conducted a deactivation ceremony and announced that it would officially vacate the site on July 18, 2010.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> |
See alsoEdit
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Further readingEdit
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External linksEdit
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