Plant was cited in 2006 for lack of permit

[ZRT2209]

Source: Chron.com

An intermediate school located close to the West Fertilizer Co. plant in West, Texas, a town of 2,000, has more than once been evacuated due to fumes and pollution from the plant that exploded Wednesday night.

But the company failed to report any previous pollution events to state air pollution authorities, according to records and interviews by The Houston Chronicle.

[more]

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Plant-was-cited-for-lack-of-permit-4445141.php

[patrice]

1. Ah! Libertarian Paradise! Would love to know the home values and avg. income in the area. nt

[HubertHeaver]

2. current or prior to the blast?

[patrice]

4. Yeah, (shakes head) "Development Property DIRT CHEAP!", before the blast it was probably Bargain

Basement Cheap.

[HubertHeaver]

10. I checked on Zillow.

Prices are typical for a small town. Range from $8,000 for a small bare lot to $194,000 for a 4 bed, 3 bath. The 4/3 is probably inside the blast radius.

Witnesses have said everyone lost windows. More than likely, every building in town suffered some structural damage.

[patrice]

11. Many of them probably also had family members in that nursing home. God! what a SHAME!!

I know everyone says we get the leaders we deserve, but no one deserves THAT, no matter how benighted and ignorant and politically irresponsible someone is, there is such a thing as basic human respect and honesty.

I mean, I can hear it now, "They CHOSE to live there." Well they didn't fucking CHOOSE to live around ammonium nitrate stored WRONG, no matter how many placards, probably OUT OF DATE hazardous materials placards, the owners had the buildings and gates plastered with, NONE of those people in that neighborhood would have had the legal right to go onto that property to identify HOW those dangerous chemicals were being stored, that is, IF they were even capable of understanding the hazardous materials placards in the first place and I damn well BET the state of Texas doesn't require that kind of information be published in any way that actually works.

[Buzz Clik]

3. Weird thing is ... it is not a plant. It doesn't make fertilizer.

It only stores stuff for distribution.

[patrice]

5. That is weird. Storage?? MUST watch what Texas puts in there next. nt

[Buzz Clik]

6. Well, it's weird because most fertilizers are not explosive.

Ammonia will explode under only the narrowest of circumstances. As I understand it, the ammonia tanks at the facility are intact.

Urea doesn't explode.

Ammonium nitrate is big time explosive, but very few dealers keep it around. And, ammonium nitrate does the most damage only when tightly contained, like in a barrel.

Because they don't manufacture chemicals, none of the dangerous precursors were present.

This one is a curiosity.

[patrice]

8. So, if they were storing ammonium nitrate there, it would've had to be specially prepared by

putting it in barrels in order for this to happen, but that's a separate issue from the fire, as far as we know anyway.

[Buzz Clik]

9. That's my understanding -- barrels, silos, whatever.

As an undergrad in engineering, I once toured a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing facility. They made anhydrous ammonia, urea, ammonium nitrate. They kept the ammonium nitrate in a gigantic, loose pile in a covered building to avoid explosion hazards.

God knows, maybe if a fire is raging, ammonium nitrate blows even if uncontained. It's not how I understand it, but

[blm]

7. Rick Perry needs his ass sued for criminal negligence - no regulations, no inspections.

Texas is a right to die at work state.