The King of Pointland

Better Living Through Push Polling

Note: I am South Jersey born and bred.

DuPont survey on VX draws resident's ire

Sunday, July 25, 2004
By Martin C. Bricketto
Staff Writer

CARNEYS POINT TWP. -- After a long day at work last week, Jim Plerhoples was itching to eat dinner and watch "Jeopardy!" at his home here when a telephone survey cut in on his plans.

The survey's initial questions about the economy, health care and terrorism seemed ordinary enough, and he assumed it was the Democrats or Republicans fishing for opinions in an election year.

The inquiry took a strange turn, though, according to Plerhoples. He was asked about potential terrorist targets and how he felt about getting rid of them. Soon, Plerhoples said he was fielding questions about plans to treat waste byproduct of VX nerve agent at the DuPont Chambers Works facility in Deepwater, just three miles from his house.

That's when he started to get angry.

"They're trying to tie in this VX stuff to the war on terrorism," he said in a later interview, pinning DuPont as the driving force behind the survey. "I felt like I was being manipulated."

DuPont confirmed it has been conducting "assessments" in neighboring Salem County through an independent research organization about the controversial proposal. The objective is to measure the community's pulse, according to DuPont Spokesman Anthony R. Farina, not sway public opinion.

"Quiet frankly, this is the responsible approach to gauging the response of the community where we live and work," he said.

But Plerhoples -- whose father and sister worked for DuPont -- isn't convinced. He thinks the survey in which he participated used homeland security issues to generate support for the VX project -- which would dump wastewater from roughly 1,200 tons of neutralized VX byproduct into the Delaware River.

"They're trying to influence people," he said. "I think that's wrong."

While some questions Plerhoples said he answered -- like how he would feel about the project if environmental studies were done -- seem to gel with DuPont's information-gathering stance on the surveys, the lead-in questions about terrorism left a bad taste in at least this resident's mouth.

"Don't try to tie (the project) into being a patriot," he said.

DuPont could not provide the survey's questions. The research company hired to conduct the surveys creates the questions, according to Farina, though DuPont does review those questions beforehand.

Doesn't Mr. Plerhoples get it? We have to dump that waste into the Delaware -- before the Terrorists do it.