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Buzz Clik

(38,437 posts)
Sat Apr 20, 2013, 11:58 AM Apr 2013

Unreported Ammonium Nitrate storage at West Fertilizer Co. (Waco)

(my apologies if this was posted elsewhere on DU by someone before me)

With the ongoing discussions about the explosions near Waco and the quest for who is to blame, lots of misinformation has been batted about. First, the explosion occurred at a fertilizer storage/distributor facility, not a fertilizer plant. It's an important distinction because a fertilizer plant has more industrial activity, chemical precursors, etc. A storage facility just stores -- stuff comes in, stuff goes out.

Second, the anhydrous ammonia tanks didn't explode. They appear to have vented, which is bad news (ammonia is nasty when inhaled directly with little dilution). Anhydrous is difficult to ignite to cause an explosion. From all appearances, it didn't happen here.

The problem was the ammonium nitrate:

The fertilizer plant that exploded on Wednesday, obliterating part of a small Texas town and killing at least 14 people, had last year been storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Yet a person familiar with DHS operations said the company that owns the plant, West Fertilizer, did not tell the agency about the potentially explosive fertilizer as it is required to do, leaving one of the principal regulators of ammonium nitrate - which can also be used in bomb making - unaware of any danger there.

Fertilizer plants and depots must report to the DHS when they hold 400 lb (180 kg) or more of the substance. Filings this year with the Texas Department of State Health Services, which weren't shared with DHS, show the plant had 270 tons of it on hand last year.

<snip>

"It seems this manufacturer was willfully off the grid," Rep. Bennie Thompson, (D-MS), ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in a statement. "This facility was known to have chemicals well above the threshold amount to be regulated under the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Act (CFATS), yet we understand that DHS did not even know the plant existed until it blew up."

"I strongly believe that if the proper safeguards were in place, as are at thousands of (DHS) CFATS-regulated plants across the country, the loss of life and destruction could have been far less extensive," said Rep. Thompson.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/20/west-fertilizer-company_n_3121110.html


Other than the random mixing in of the word "plant" for this facility, this is a good read.

Most fertilizer dealers abandoned keeping much ammonium nitrate around because of the DHS paperwork load. West Fertilizer Co. was not burdened by this load, and people died unnecessarily.

Bottom line:

1) This was in all likelihood an ammonium nitrate explosion.
2) The problem was lack of compliance (actual defiance), not a lack of regulations or lack of enforcement
3) For those who like to beat up EPA, this was not an EPA problem.
4) For those who like to pound on Texas for being unregulated, this was not a Texas problem.



6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Unreported Ammonium Nitrate storage at West Fertilizer Co. (Waco) (Original Post) Buzz Clik Apr 2013 OP
the fucking owner needs to be arrested gopiscrap Apr 2013 #1
Oh, yes. The owner is in deep, deep trouble. Buzz Clik Apr 2013 #2
From a discussion I had this morning with a neighbor 1KansasDem Apr 2013 #3
That's not the issue. Buzz Clik Apr 2013 #4
You think the fire at the plant, and the water they were pouring on it, dixiegrrrrl Apr 2013 #5
Without the fire, there is no explosion. Buzz Clik Apr 2013 #6

gopiscrap

(23,674 posts)
1. the fucking owner needs to be arrested
Sat Apr 20, 2013, 12:09 PM
Apr 2013

for violating all sort of laws! epa, storage laws, possibky zoning, safety etc. maybe even lying to regulators and other govt officials...

 

Buzz Clik

(38,437 posts)
2. Oh, yes. The owner is in deep, deep trouble.
Sat Apr 20, 2013, 12:13 PM
Apr 2013

There is not enough money in all of Texas to settle the lawsuits he will be seeing.

1KansasDem

(251 posts)
3. From a discussion I had this morning with a neighbor
Sat Apr 20, 2013, 02:57 PM
Apr 2013

who spent his entire career as a COOP manager, the "safe and secure" storage of ammonium nitrate the DHS is concerned about has nothing to do with employee or public safety.
Has to do with keeping the product stored in a way that it can't be stolen. Locks, fences etc.
Every sale must be recorded and logged.
His line was "DHS doesn't give a shit if you store full propane tanks next to it. Just make sure nobody can steal it"

 

Buzz Clik

(38,437 posts)
4. That's not the issue.
Sat Apr 20, 2013, 03:02 PM
Apr 2013

The domain if DHS is not employee safety in the first place.

The safest way to store ammonium nitrate is uncontained (i.e, not in barrels or whatever) -- placed in big piles, indoors and isolated from everything else. When you meet DHS standards, you are protected from typical problems of explosion.

Regardless, the issue was the non-reporting to alert first responding of the incredible threat to them.

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)
5. You think the fire at the plant, and the water they were pouring on it,
Sat Apr 20, 2013, 04:52 PM
Apr 2013

had anything to do with the subsequent explosion?

the mayor, and volunteer firefighter, of the town thinks so......

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