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In reply to the discussion: Shameless Sack of S*** of The Week: Rick Perry [View all]spanone
(135,633 posts)The Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency charged with regulating the highly explosive substance ammonium nitrate, wasn't aware that West Fertilizer Co. stored 270 tons of ammonium nitrate - 1,300 times the threshold that triggers federal oversight.
But the small company did submit the information to another government agency - the Department of State Health Services.
http://www.chron.com/news/kilday-hart/article/State-regulators-focus-on-emissions-not-safety-4450243.php
Who regulates these fertilizer plants?
At least seven different state and federal agencies can regulate Texas fertilizer plants like the one in West: OSHA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the Texas Department of State Health Services, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Feed and Fertilizer Control Service.
Some of the agencies dont appear to have shared information before the blast.
Fertilizer plants that hold more than 400 pounds of ammonium nitrate, for instance, are required to notify the Department of Homeland Security. (Ammonium nitrate can be used to make bombs. Its what Timothy McVeigh used to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.) The West plant held 270 tons 2014 yes, tons 2014 of the chemical last year, according to a report it filed with the Texas Department of State Health Services, but the plant didnt tell Homeland Security.
http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/04/what-went-wrong-in-west-and-where-were-the-regulators/