A federal judge is siding with the Army in a lawsuit over shipping the neutralized VX nerve agent from Indiana to Texas to be incinerated.

U.S. District Judge Larry McKinney granted the Army's request for summary judgment in the suit filed by the Sierra Club and other groups. The suit wanted the shipments from the Newport Chemical Depot to Port Arthur, Texas, stopped. It contended the shipments were illegal and that the Army had not fully assessed the risks.

But McKinney ruled that while the waste was hazardous, it was not a munition or chemical agent. McKinney found in favor of the Army on all the issues raised in the lawsuit, including the Army's contention that it fully considered the risks of the shipments.

The last of the VX at Newport was destroyed in early August. The Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas destroyed its last VX nerve-agent
land mine in June.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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