Texas Fertilizer Plant Fell Through Regulatory Cracks

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WEST, Tex. — In the moments after a fire broke out at a fertilizer plant here last week, some of the volunteer firefighters and other first responders who rushed to the scene appeared to have known that there were tons of dangerously combustible ammonium nitrate inside, but others did not.





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Site of Fertilizer Plant Explosion


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Related

A Texas Town Mourns the First Responders Who Paid With Their Lives (April 21, 2013)


Mass Injuries Reported in Texas Fertilizer Plant Blast (April 18, 2013)






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Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

Services were held Sunday outside a church damaged in the blast. Questions are being raised about the proximity of buildings to the plant.


Ammonium nitrate is the same chemical that Timothy McVeigh used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. The nitrogen-rich chemical, a crystal-like substance that resembles coarse table salt, is popular with farmers as a fertilizer but in the wrong hands or in the wrong conditions it can turn explosive. Investigators say that the ammonium nitrate stored at the plant appeared to have caused the subsequent explosion that killed 10 firefighters and at least 4 civilians.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/us/texas-fertilizer-plant-fell-through-cracks-of-regulatory-oversight.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130425

[LeftInTX]

1. Several things pop out from the article:

In 2002, the federal Chemical Safety Board recommended to the E.P.A. that it broaden those risk management plans to include volatile hazardous chemicals similar to ammonium nitrate. That recommendation was never acted upon.

Why not? I guess a bunch of anti-regulation Rs in congress. This is kind of a no brainer. Would have been fairly easy to implement.

The state chemist, Tim Herrman, said the law prohibits him from disclosing information about the 115 facilities that hold permits to sell ammonium nitrate in Texas.

Why is this a secret?

If a company like West Fertilizer fails to file a required report or misreports the risks it faces, it is often hard for agencies, with their budgetary constraints and overstretched staffs, to catch such errors. In its 2011 Risk Management Plan filed with the E.P.A., West Fertilizer did not check the box saying the plant might face a risk of fire or explosion.

OK, I'm going to get political here: The Repukes are holding hearing about Benghazi and the marathon bombers. Couldn't hearings be held about something like this? Someone could blame it on a weak EPA. I doubt it will ever happen.