DENVER — The U.S. Army is considering trucking hazardous wastewater from a chemical weapons destruction plant in Colorado to another state because the plant isn’t yet fully operational.
Incinerators in Texas and Arkansas are under consideration to destroy up to 250,000 gallons of wastewater from the Pueblo Chemical Depot, but officials couldn’t immediately provide the exact locations.
The southern Colorado plant is dismantling and neutralizing shells containing mustard agent but can’t yet process the wastewater and is running out of storage space, officials said.
The waste is primarily saltwater but could irritate human skin because it contains a caustic chemical used to neutralize the mustard. Officials said the wastewater contains no mustard agent.
The highly automated, $4.5 billion plant is destroying about 780,000 shells filled with 2,500 tons of mustard agent under an international treaty. It’s the largest remaining stockpile of chemical weapons in the U.S.
Mustard agent can maim or kill by blistering skin, scarring eyes and inflaming airways.
Under most conditions, it’s a thick liquid, not a gas as commonly believed. It is colorless and almost odorless but got its name because impurities made early versions smell like mustard plants.
The Pueblo plant began work last year and has destroyed more than 19,600 shells and 112 tons of mustard, depot spokesman Tom Schultz said.
But a leak delayed the start of one of the last steps in the process — removing salts and other chemicals from the water and converting them to a solid that can be taken to a hazardous waste dump. The water would then be reused in the plant.
The leak has been repaired but officials don’t know whether that part of the plant will be ready before they run out of storage space, so they’re making plans to ship some wastewater elsewhere if necessary.
No decision has been made, Schultz said, and the plant still needs to get approval from state health officials in Colorado to ship the wastewater by truck.