Conservationists Say Reuse Plan Would Ruin Former Indiana Depot Land

Conservation groups upset over a plan to reuse a former Army weapons facility in western Indiana say the group charged with finding a new role for the property is not addressing concerns about a restored prairie on the site.

The Newport Chemical Depot Reuse Authority hopes to develop a business and industrial campus on 11 square miles at the Vermillion County site that once produced and stored the deadly VX nerve agent. Conservationists tell the Tribune-Star that the plan would destroy all but about 44 acres of the state's largest restored black-soil tallgrass prairie. They want the group to reconsider.

Phillip W. Cox of the Wabash Valley Audubon Society says the Army spent nearly $128,000 from 1994 to 2005 to restore 336 acres of tallgrass prairie.