West Fertilizer Co.

[Recursion]

http://www.manta.com/c/mmcfc1w/west-fertilizer-co

Employees 5 to 9
Location Type
Annual Revenue Estimate $5 to 10 million
Years in Business 55

Some people have asked whether this was a Koch brothers type company, and the answer is no. And the depressing thing is that it might have been better if it were.

Large companies have a history of pushing for stronger regulations because it lets them price smaller companies like this one out of business (see the large meat packing companies and their support for the FDA).

[renate]

1. thank you--that's interesting

Only 5 to 9 employees? That sounds really tiny. Which would be interesting if true, that a tiny manufacturer could produce enough fertilizer to result in this.

[Recursion]

3. I'm sure most of it is automated

There's probably 3 or 4 line employees that maintain the robots and do their programming.

[Mopar151]

16. Robots? Automated? Programming?

These are bulk agricultural chemicals, generally moved with pumps or conveyors. if they are bagging anything on-site, it's a manual process. And at this time of year, they will be staffed for at least 2 shifts, to handle traffic in & out.

[Recursion]

8. Also, "employee" doesn't count some kinds of contractors, apparently (nt)

[ag_dude]

18. They're not a manufacturer in the traditional sense

For the most part they basically just receive the chemical via the rail line.

[Electric Monk]

2. Thanks for posting. nt

[LeftInTX]

4. I wonder how much insurance they carried?

I don't think enough.....

[Ellipsis]

5. no kiddin'.

[bluedigger]

6. That is surprising.

The news reports led me to believe it was a major employer in the community, but I bet the nursing home that got leveled had more employees. Really no excuse for having it in the city limits.

[Recursion]

7. They may have had a lot of contractors (nt)

[bluedigger]

11. Possibly.

But their revenues wouldn't indicate that they supported a very large workforce.

[TexasTowelie]

14. I'm familiar with the area since I traveled through there frequently since the late 80s.

I've even driven by the fertilizer yard and it really is such a small plant that I never took notice or would have connected it to an incident this significant. There are plenty of other small towns throughout the state and country that are in far more densely populated areas than this plant.

I imagine that at the time the plant was built it was on the outskirts of the city since it is on the far side of the football field. It is possible that it was even annexed into the city in order for the city to increase their tax revenue base. While I don't recall every detail, I expect that the hospital and nursing home were built afterwards. The current population is around 2,800, but I recall that about 20 years ago the population was closer to 1,500. The terrain is mostly gently rolling hills with prairie grasses.

The population is about 90% Anglo of Czech descent and of modest means with a few exceptions such as the banker and a few farmer with large land holdings. The county seat is in Waco so there are only a minimal amount of attorneys, bail bondsman, and LEOs in the area. A lot of people would consider the area to be depressed when driving through.

[ag_dude]

21. All sorts of false information out there

The news was off on a lot of stuff

At one point Piers was reporting that the command center had been moved 5-6 miles south when the city itself is barely a 1.5 miles long. They also talked about the football field being a mile or so farm the company when it's only a couple hundred yards.

It also wasn't entirely in the city limits (yes, to avoid taxes), you can even see that on certain zoom levels of the Google map.

[bluedigger]

26. I think it was too close.

Eagerly awaiting your deconstruction of "too" and "close".

[ag_dude]

31. It wasn't too close when it was built

It was actually built at least half a mile away from the town. The city built up in that direction.

There are historic topo maps linked to in a different thread that you can reference for more info.

The fact remains, it wasn't in the city limits as you originally claimed.

[Ellipsis]

9. population 2,849 Area: 1.6 sq miles ...pretty tiny to look at on google maps

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. I'm willing to bet

the company owned all the land around them at one time and profited from the residential build up around them.

But that's stating the obvious.

[ag_dude]

19. The company is on the other side of the rail line from the town

The land around the company that they could have owned isn't built up

It's not obvious,you are speculating.

[Ichingcarpenter]

22. I'll still take the bet

since I do know shit and shit statements.

[ag_dude]

23. How about $100,000?

Seriously, not kidding.

I'll wager whatever you have access to. Let's do it. We'll put it in escrow with Escrow.com and when the fact that you don't know the area is made clear, I can claim it.

Deal?

BTW, have you even looked at a map of the area?

[Ichingcarpenter]

24. I saw the photo

and the expansion, schools and the fact.

Within 4 blocks of the factory every home was destroyed.
Someone owned the land originally to build within those 4 blocks.

How about a beer instead of your rich ass crap?

You seem extremely defensive protecting the plant owners

[ag_dude]

25. Where have I protected anybody? And from what?

Seriously, point it out.

I'm calling out the bull shit knee jerk reactions for what they are, bull shit knee jerk reactions built on bias and ignorance. People like you are trying to mark the community as being run by some evil, corrupt power brokers when it's not. It's just a small community built on farming similar to hundreds like it.

The land on the side of the rail yard that the owners of that place could have owned is currently farm land. The schools and stuff you are speaking of is on the other side of the tracks.

In almost all circumstances railroads owned the land like where the fertilizer plant is prior to it being developed.

[rainbow4321]

12. Reportedly, OSHA has not done any kind of inspection in 5 years

Is that the norm? Are they supposed to go out to do any kind of rules/regs safety inspections or do they just go to a site post-accident. One of the local Dallas channels kept saying that they have "been looking and looking" thru records but couldn't find any inspections/reports in the plant's history. Then I saw on Twitter that the last one was from 5 years ago.

But the nearby middle school did have to be evacuated not too long ago because of some sort of plant problem.

[Mopar151]

17. OSHA is generally an "after the accident" thing

As for the middle school evacuation - probably for an ammonia leak. If it did'nt kill or spectacularly maim somebody in the plant, it won't even come up on OSHA's radar.

[jmowreader]

29. I wonder when the last Texas Department of Insurance inspection was

OSHA tends to show up in response to complaints. You can hardly blame them; there are millions of businesses and hundreds of inspectors. (OSHA says on their website that "with our state partners we have approximately 2,200 inspectors responsible for the health and safety of 130 million workers, employed at more than 8 million worksites around the nation — which translates to about one compliance officer for every 59,000 workers." They did 40,648 federal inspections in Fiscal Year 2011...approximately one out of every 200 companies.

The Texas Department of Insurance is the state-level equivalent to OSHA, and state-level agencies do most of the inspecting. (At least they did in North Carolina; you saw a lot of OSHNC guys but never a federal one.)

[KharmaTrain]

13. A Mainstay In A Farming Town...

As others on the thread have mentioned it appears this town has grown around the plant...that was on the far northwest edge of town. I can easily see this plant being a major part of the town...supplying fertilizer to the many farms that ring the community. It's not unlike thousands of other small rural towns that were built around grain elevators and other ag-related business situated along a rail line.

The questions about the factory's condition and the cause of the explosion will be forthcoming and at this point the focus should be on assisting the victims and save the blame games for later...

[stklurker]

30. farming town

Thank you for the sanity.. I am beginning to believe that most people here never grew up in farm town America...

[redqueen]

28. +1

[City Lights]

20. I heard they had no emergency disaster plan in place,

because they claimed there was no risk of a disaster at the plant. They said the worst accident they could suffer would be a small leak of ammonia. (Take it with a grain of salt - I heard it on CNN.)

[geek tragedy]

27. There should be criminal prosecutions, nt

[FarCenter]

32. It is a distributor, not a "Plant" or "factory"

They bring in the fertilizer in bulk -- it is on the rail line.

They store it up until planting season and then sell it to the local farmers. These types of businesses may also provide application services.