Texas Commission on Environmental Quality cannot even get
300 illegal dumped tires cleaned up. This is a joke.
MARCH 31, 2015
Nearly two years after a fire set off a deadly ammonium
nitrate explosion at the West Fertilizer Co., Texas businesses selling the
chemical aren’t subject to any new laws, and only a handful store it in
fireproof buildings as experts recommend, state officials said.
Now the window of opportunity for state-level reform of
ammonium nitrate safety standards may be closing.
As the biennial legislative session heads toward the June
finish line, the two bills targeting ammonium nitrate storage are in
legislative limbo.
One of the bills is written by Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso,
the former chairman of the House Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security.
The committee has held hours long hearings about the regulatory failures that
led to the April 17, 2013, disaster that killed 15 and wrecked a third of the
town.
A yearlong investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board
found that the fire and explosion were preventable, and faulted federal, state
and local regulatory agencies for “failing to identify a serious hazard and
correct it.”
Pickett’s bill, which is named HB 417 after the date of the
explosion, would give the State Fire Marshal’s Office rule-making authority
over how to properly store and handle ammonium nitrate, possibly including
fireproof storage.
“The fact that it’s already the end of March and it hasn’t
been heard is kind of strange,” Pickett said this week.
He said he worries that by the next session, the public’s
memory of the West disaster will evaporate along with the zeal for chemical
safety legislation.
“If it doesn’t pass in this session, we won’t be addressing
it until we have another explosion,” he said. “It won’t be a problem until it
is.”
Pickett later said his bill and another written by state
Rep. Kyle Kacal, R-College Station, will likely come before the House
Environmental Regulation Committee next week. Kacal sits on the committee, and
his district includes West.
A staff member with the committee said it’s likely the bills
will be heard soon but could give no definite date.
Pickett and Kacal both are proposing to give the State Fire
Marshal’s Office the power to inspect ammonium nitrate facilities to ensure
compliance with the law and allow local fire departments to enter the
facilities for planning purposes.
The bills also would put the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality in charge of handling the Tier II reports that disclose
where hazardous chemicals are stored. The Department of State Health Services
now has charge of those reports.
Kacal’s bill, HB 942, diverges from Pickett’s in that it
doesn’t allow the state fire marshal to create rules for ammonium nitrate
storage. Instead, it cites existing standards from the Office of the State
Chemist requiring the fertilizer to be stored more than 30 feet from
combustible material, such as seeds, fuel or batteries. The state chemist
adopted that rule in the wake of the West disaster.
Kacal said that measure will go a long way in preventing
ammonium nitrate explosions, and he said fertilizer companies have voluntarily
made safety improvements since 2013.
“Because of the fact that the West explosion happened with
so many fatalities, they’re taking every precaution to make sure it never
happens again,” he said.
Kacal’s bill is mirrored in a Senate bill written by state
Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, who also represents West.
Pickett agreed that fertilizer dealers have stepped up
safety since 2013, thanks in part to inspections by the state chemist and state
fire marshal. But he said he wants to give the state fire marshal’s office
authority to decide what the storage standards should be.
“I imagine that there would not need to be a whole lot of
additional rule-making,” he said.
State Fire Marshal Chris Connealy declined to say what rules
he would impose if Pickett’s bill passes. But he has voiced support for
fireproof storage of ammonium nitrate.
“I’ve been very public in saying that under the best
practices, ammonium nitrate should not be in a combustible building,” he said.
“Certainly, Chris Connealy does not make that decision. We’ll see what the
Legislature wants to do.”
Connealy and his staff have inspected every ammonium nitrate
fertilizer handler in Texas since the West disaster, and he said the businesses
have made substantial improvements. The number of ammonium nitrate dealers has
decreased from 57 to 43 in that time, as some owners have chosen to avoid the
paperwork and insurance premiums involved with ammonium nitrate.
Connealy said 80 to 90 percent of the remaining facilities
are wood frame, like West Fertilizer Co.
At West, the building was engulfed in flames within minutes,
and a portion of the roof fell onto the ammonium nitrate bin, allowing the
fertilizer to melt and become sensitized under pressure, investigators have
said.
Connealy said the lesson is simple: “We’ve got to keep fire
away from ammonium nitrate.”
Pickett said agribusiness interests have opposed his bill
because of fears that fertilizer dealers would have to upgrade their storage
facilities.
“My thoughts are that the ag industry doesn’t want anyone
asking any questions,” he said. “The way they’ve interacted with me, it seems
they are really trying to water it down and say, ‘Don’t make us do anything.’
“There are two proposals out there. I would prefer the one
the committee developed versus the one written by the industry,” he said,
referring to Kacal’s bill.
Kacal acknowledged getting “a little bit” of input from
industry groups, such as the Texas Ag Industries Association, in drafting the
bill to make sure it wouldn’t create a hardship on agriculture.
‘Safety of people’
“The staff worked with all stakeholders,” he said. “We have
an obligation to pass good legislation. . . . The safety of people is first and
foremost.”
Donnie Dippel, president of Texas Ag Industries Association,
said Pickett’s bill “leaves us hanging in limbo” by allowing the fire marshal’s
office to make the rules later.
“We like the one Kacal has because it tells us what we need
to do,” said Dippel, whose organization represents about 500 ag-related
businesses.
Dippel said many dealers would be financially incapable of
building new fireproof facilities for ammonium nitrate and would stop selling
it, depriving farmers of a fertilizer option.
West Mayor Tommy Muska said the status quo of allowing
ammonium nitrate to be stored in wooden bins, as it was at West Fertilizer Co.,
is not acceptable.
“We don’t want to overregulate, but the simple fact is that
these things could be stored in a better way,” he said. “Maybe not sprinkled,
but put in concrete bins. If that means putting it below ground, so be it.”
Muska said another option is mixing ammonium nitrate with
other substances to make it less explosive.
Muska said he hopes to see some meaningful reform in this
legislative session, possibly combining elements of the bills from Pickett and
Kacal.
He agreed with Pickett that ammonium nitrate safety reform
is in danger of losing its momentum two years after the West catastrophe.
“We’re third-page news now,” he said. “Unfortunately, our
society forgets very quickly. . . . The next Legislature is going to forget
that West even exists. It’s unfortunate that we can’t get anything moving on
this.”
Federal reform
Meanwhile, little or no federal regulatory reform on
ammonium nitrate has resulted so far from the West incident, said Daniel
Horowitz, managing director of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board. The board for 12
years has recommended regulating ammonium nitrate and other reactive chemicals
as “extremely hazardous.”
He said the industry seems to be making some progress
regulating itself under the new ResponsibleAg program, which allows private
inspections of fertilizer plants on a voluntary basis.
“In terms of regulations, there hasn’t been a change yet,”
he said. “For any company, prudence would dictate keeping ammonium nitrate in a
noncombustible environment. I think it’s clear the industry knows this can be
stored in the safest possible way. The hazard can be completely eliminated
using existing technology.”
Source: http://www.wacotrib.com