Languish.org

QuoteAn explosion ripped through a fertilizer plant Wednesday night in the town of West, Texas, sending a massive fireball into the sky and causing dozens of injuries, officials said.

A number of nearby residents were being evacuated because of the possibility of another explosion, officials said.

A hospital in nearby Waco, Texas, has been told to anticipate 100 injured people coming in from the fertilizer plant area, an official at the medical facility said.

Glenn Robinson, CEO of Hillcrest Hospital, said a field triage station was being set up on a football field near the plant some 18 miles north of Waco after the Wednesday night explosion.

"We have had a steady flow of patients coming in by ambulance as well as by private vehicles," Robinson told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

More than 40 patients were received as of 10 p.m. (11 p.m. ET), Robinson said, suffering from "blast injuries, orthopedic injuries (and) a lot of lacerations. While some of the injuries are minor, others are "quite serious," he said.

Hazardous material teams were being rushed to the scene, an emergency management official said.

At least six helicopters are going to fly out those who are injured, Robinson said. Others are being transported by ambulance, and some are getting to the hospital by car, he added.

Two other hospitals in the region were also assisting.

As many scrambled to assist the injured, another danger seemed to emerge Wednesday night.

"What we are hearing is that there is one fertilizer tank that is still intact at the plant, and there are evacuations in place to make sure everyone gets away from the area safely in case of another explosion," said Ben Stratmann, a spokesman for Texas State Sen. Brian Birdwell.

Photos of the explosion -- which reportedly happened around 7:50 p.m. (8:50 p.m. ET) -- showed a huge blaze and flames leaping over the roof of a structure and a plume of smoke rising high into the air.

The West Fertilizer Plant is just north of Waco. A school and a nursing home are among the buildings near the plant, CNN affiliate KWTX reported.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he is aware of the explosion, a spokesman said, and was working to get resources into the area.

Tommy Alford, who works in a convenience store about three miles from the plant, told CNN that several volunteer firefighters were at the store when they spotted smoke. Alford said the firefighters headed toward the scene and then between five and 10 minutes later, he heard a massive explosion.

"It was massive; it was intense," Alford said.

Crystal Anthony, a nearby resident, said she saw the flames engulf a nursing home and an apartment complex.

"It was like a bomb went off," said Barry Murry, a resident lives about a mile away from the plant. "There were emergency vehicles everywhere. It has been overwhelming."

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 18, 2013, 01:15:03 AM
Google map of the area.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=West+Fertilizer+Plant++Waco,+TX&hl=en&ll=31.81624,-97.086428&spn=0.007786,0.016512&t=h&z=17

A fertilizer factory next to a nursing home, hospital and school! What could possibly go wrong!?

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 18, 2013, 01:15:03 AM
A fertilizer factory next to a nursing home, hospital and school! What could possibly go wrong!?

Quote from: 11B4V on April 18, 2013, 01:20:40 AM
Where's the Sonic on the map?

Quote from: merithyn on April 18, 2013, 08:53:37 AM
So... how long until we start hearing cries of Armageddon? :whistle:

Quote from: CountDeMoney on April 18, 2013, 01:06:24 AM
The Sonic's safe, though.  Whew.

Quote from: Syt on April 18, 2013, 08:56:04 AM
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftwistedjunk.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F06%2Fla_noire_explosion.jpg&hash=fb08209de249d054f2da5533b574fd6d42f82d40)

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 18, 2013, 06:31:36 AM
MSNBC is reporting 5-15 dead.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26852192/ns/msnbc-zeitgeist/vp/51580516/

Given the map below, one would think it will rise.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FhXDkEXh.jpg&hash=11a96bede204961e113b460fa6d7a73edfd4cf84) (http://imgur.com/hXDkEXh)

Quote from: Baron von Schtinkenbutt on April 18, 2013, 08:58:39 AM

Quote from: CountDeMoney on April 18, 2013, 01:06:24 AM
The Sonic's safe, though.  Whew.

No, the place that picture was taken from is far, far more important. :P

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 18, 2013, 06:31:36 AM
MSNBC is reporting 5-15 dead.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26852192/ns/msnbc-zeitgeist/vp/51580516/

Given the map below, one would think it will rise.

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 18, 2013, 12:16:31 AM
Damn, lets hope those rumors are just that Valmy.  :(

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 18, 2013, 01:04:57 AM
All houses within 4 blocks have been destroyed, a nursing home collapsed and the middle school is on fire.

Quote from: Baron von Schtinkenbutt on April 18, 2013, 09:04:16 AM

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 18, 2013, 06:31:36 AM
MSNBC is reporting 5-15 dead.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26852192/ns/msnbc-zeitgeist/vp/51580516/

Given the map below, one would think it will rise.

According to local reporting, the West volunteer fire department knew they were in over their heads pretty quickly[1].  West PD and Fire started evacuating the nursing home and apartment building before the actual explosion.

[1] The plant was on fire for about 2 hours prior to the explosion.

Quote from: merithyn on April 18, 2013, 09:11:10 AM

Quote from: Baron von Schtinkenbutt on April 18, 2013, 09:04:16 AM

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 18, 2013, 06:31:36 AM
MSNBC is reporting 5-15 dead.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26852192/ns/msnbc-zeitgeist/vp/51580516/

Given the map below, one would think it will rise.

According to local reporting, the West volunteer fire department knew they were in over their heads pretty quickly[1].  West PD and Fire started evacuating the nursing home and apartment building before the actual explosion.

[1] The plant was on fire for about 2 hours prior to the explosion.

And the schools? Please tell me the schools were evacuated, too.

Quote from: merithyn on April 18, 2013, 09:11:10 AM
And the schools? Please tell me the schools were evacuated, too.

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 18, 2013, 01:10:51 AM
Explosion caught on video. Holy shit!

Also, they're speculating 70 dead! :(
The town is being evacuated.
http://www.kwkt.com/news/caught-camera-fertilizer-plant-explosion-near-waco

Quote from: merithyn on April 18, 2013, 09:41:54 AM
This is awful. That little girl just about made me cry. :(

Quote from: derspiess on April 18, 2013, 08:59:02 AM

Quote from: Syt on April 18, 2013, 08:56:04 AM
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftwistedjunk.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F06%2Fla_noire_explosion.jpg&hash=fb08209de249d054f2da5533b574fd6d42f82d40)

That ran through my mind this morning.

Quote from: CountDeMoney on April 18, 2013, 09:43:51 AM

Quote from: merithyn on April 18, 2013, 09:41:54 AM
This is awful. That little girl just about made me cry. :(

They were interviewing him this morning with his kids, and he said there were a few people taking footage of the fire a lot closer to the blast than he was.
After the blast, he didn't see them anymore.

Quote from: garbon on April 18, 2013, 09:49:53 AM

Quote from: derspiess on April 18, 2013, 08:59:02 AM

Quote from: Syt on April 18, 2013, 08:56:04 AM
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftwistedjunk.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F06%2Fla_noire_explosion.jpg&hash=fb08209de249d054f2da5533b574fd6d42f82d40)

That ran through my mind this morning.

I don't think I ever had that DLC. I was like I don't remember that in LA Noire. :blush:

Quote from: derspiess on April 18, 2013, 09:50:50 AM
Particularly if I had my kids with me, I'd leave the area as soon as I could rather than record the damned thing.  Fires spread quickly and sometimes make things go kaboom.

Quote from: CountDeMoney on April 18, 2013, 09:43:51 AM

Quote from: merithyn on April 18, 2013, 09:41:54 AM
This is awful. That little girl just about made me cry. :(

They were interviewing him this morning with his kids, and he said there were a few people taking footage of the fire a lot closer to the blast than he was.
After the blast, he didn't see them anymore.

Quote from: merithyn on April 18, 2013, 09:57:15 AM
I need to crawl into my bed with a pitcher of warm milk laced with vanilla and my Anne of Green Gables books after this week. I am not equipped for this kind of stuff. :(

Quote from: garbon on April 18, 2013, 09:49:53 AM
I don't think I ever had that DLC. I was like I don't remember that in LA Noire. :blush:

Quote from: Razgovory on April 18, 2013, 01:46:55 AM
Damn, I was wondering about zoning myself.

Quote from: Baron von Schtinkenbutt on April 18, 2013, 09:04:16 AM
[1] The plant was on fire for about 2 hours prior to the explosion.

Quote from: The Brain on April 18, 2013, 12:34:42 PM
Government's Society's view of risk and risk management is incredibly immature.

Quote from: mongers on April 18, 2013, 02:10:30 PM
Why wasn't this plant a good 2-3 miles out of town, it's not like Texas lacks the necessary space or that Texans insist on walking to work.

QuoteWhile not official (we consider "official" based upon what is posted by USFA/NFFF) - details from reliable and involved fire service leadership at the scene in West, Texas (20 miles north of Waco) are indicating that, at this time it appears that: 5 West Firefighters, 4 EMS Medics, 1 Off Duty Fire Captain from Dallas (who was in town at the time and was assisting) and 1 unconfirmed (unknown agency at this point) Firefighter have been killed in the Line of Duty.  Active search and rescue operations are continuing.

Quote from: mongers on April 18, 2013, 02:10:30 PM
Why wasn't this plant a good 2-3 miles out of town, it's not like Texas lacks the necessary space or that Texans insist on walking to work.

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 18, 2013, 05:04:16 PM

Quote from: mongers on April 18, 2013, 02:10:30 PM
Why wasn't this plant a good 2-3 miles out of town, it's not like Texas lacks the necessary space or that Texans insist on walking to work.

The plant was built in the '50s. I presume it was in the middle of nowhere at the time and town grew up around it over time.

Quote from: mongers on April 18, 2013, 05:22:56 PM

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 18, 2013, 05:04:16 PM

Quote from: mongers on April 18, 2013, 02:10:30 PM
Why wasn't this plant a good 2-3 miles out of town, it's not like Texas lacks the necessary space or that Texans insist on walking to work.

The plant was built in the '50s. I presume it was in the middle of nowhere at the time and town grew up around it over time.

If so it should have been re-zone and if necessary the municipality help with a few local tax breaks to get it relocated. 

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 18, 2013, 05:04:16 PM

Quote from: mongers on April 18, 2013, 02:10:30 PM
Why wasn't this plant a good 2-3 miles out of town, it's not like Texas lacks the necessary space or that Texans insist on walking to work.

The plant was built in the '50s. I presume it was in the middle of nowhere at the time and town grew up around it over time.

QuoteChemical blast brings echoes from ship explosion disaster 66 years earlier
The deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant that ripped through the town of West, Texas, on Wednesday, stirred echoes of one of the worst industrial accidents in United States history, which struck the state 66 years ago earlier this week.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/18/17805986-chemical-blast-brings-echoes-from-ship-explosion-disaster-66-years-earlier?lite

To this day, there is no definitive death toll. The Texas State Historical Association notes that 576 people are listed on the site's memorial wall but that many more may have died.

Because so many victims were so horribly mangled, and because of the number of foreign sailors and itinerant dockworkers, it is impossible say how many people actually perished, both the library and the historical association say.

Quote from: CountDeMoney on April 18, 2013, 05:43:02 PM
There's 100s of towns in Texas, Oklahoma and other states just like West, built around fertilizer plants.
And as long as there's been ammonia nitrate fertilizer, there's been explosions destroying towns.

QuoteChemical blast brings echoes from ship explosion disaster 66 years earlier
The deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant that ripped through the town of West, Texas, on Wednesday, stirred echoes of one of the worst industrial accidents in United States history, which struck the state 66 years ago earlier this week.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/18/17805986-chemical-blast-brings-echoes-from-ship-explosion-disaster-66-years-earlier?lite

To this day, there is no definitive death toll. The Texas State Historical Association notes that 576 people are listed on the site's memorial wall but that many more may have died.

Because so many victims were so horribly mangled, and because of the number of foreign sailors and itinerant dockworkers, it is impossible say how many people actually perished, both the library and the historical association say.

My Dad lived in Texas City as a kid a couple years after that.  Grew up hearing true horror stories about that day.

Quote from: mongers on April 18, 2013, 05:36:08 PM
What's the risk-reward of these plants given they tend to go up quite regularly ?

Handful of jobs vs risk that half the town gets flattened once a century ?

Quote from: mongers on April 18, 2013, 05:48:33 PM
These plants go up the world over, remember that French one from a few years back ? 

Quote from: Caliga on April 18, 2013, 07:11:27 PM
35 dead, according to the town's mayor. :(

Quote from: Caliga on April 18, 2013, 07:11:27 PM
35 dead, according to the town's mayor. :(

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on April 18, 2013, 07:44:54 PM
Amazing the difference in press coverage between this and Boston, considering the death impact of both.

Quote from: DontSayBanana on April 18, 2013, 07:48:38 PM

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on April 18, 2013, 07:44:54 PM
Amazing the difference in press coverage between this and Boston, considering the death impact of both.

I've been thinking that.  CNN's given pride of place to every Boston-related tidbit for the past couple days.  I think I saw one tiny link to the Richter Scale tidbit on West.

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on April 18, 2013, 07:44:54 PM

Quote from: Caliga on April 18, 2013, 07:11:27 PM
35 dead, according to the town's mayor. :(

Amazing the difference in press coverage between this and Boston, considering the death impact of both.

Quote from: fahdiz on April 18, 2013, 07:50:48 PM

Quote from: DontSayBanana on April 18, 2013, 07:48:38 PM

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on April 18, 2013, 07:44:54 PM
Amazing the difference in press coverage between this and Boston, considering the death impact of both.

I've been thinking that.  CNN's given pride of place to every Boston-related tidbit for the past couple days.  I think I saw one tiny link to the Richter Scale tidbit on West.

I saw two headlines on my iPhone's CNN app yesterday which caused me to delete the app in a fit of pique. One was "Man in Cowboy Hat Helps Victims" and the other (even better) one was "Person Near Bomb Blast Was Momentarily Deaf".

Fuck you, CNN. Fuck you and fuck your excuse for journalism.

Quote from: mongers on April 18, 2013, 07:55:27 PM

Quote from: fahdiz on April 18, 2013, 07:50:48 PM

Quote from: DontSayBanana on April 18, 2013, 07:48:38 PM

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on April 18, 2013, 07:44:54 PM
Amazing the difference in press coverage between this and Boston, considering the death impact of both.

I've been thinking that.  CNN's given pride of place to every Boston-related tidbit for the past couple days.  I think I saw one tiny link to the Richter Scale tidbit on West.

I saw two headlines on my iPhone's CNN app yesterday which caused me to delete the app in a fit of pique. One was "Man in Cowboy Hat Helps Victims" and the other (even better) one was "Person Near Bomb Blast Was Momentarily Deaf".

Fuck you, CNN. Fuck you and fuck your excuse for journalism.

Yeah, though admittedly that man was extremely dense to take his 13 year old daughter to within 200 yards of a fire at a chemical plant. :blink:

The way that girl says "please get me out of here" or a variation, four times was very human, best commentary so far on the event.

Quote from: CountDeMoney on April 18, 2013, 07:54:32 PM

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on April 18, 2013, 07:44:54 PM

Quote from: Caliga on April 18, 2013, 07:11:27 PM
35 dead, according to the town's mayor. :(

Amazing the difference in press coverage between this and Boston, considering the death impact of both.

Big difference between accidents and terrorism.

Quote from: fahdiz on April 18, 2013, 08:01:16 PM
Not to the dead people.

Quote from: Admiral Yi on April 18, 2013, 08:22:34 PM
Captain Occupy.

Quote from: Ed Anger on April 18, 2013, 08:26:03 PM
Kitty litter and wargame counters.

Quote from: CountDeMoney on April 18, 2013, 08:28:39 PM
A single Europa game can take out a school bus.

Quote from: fahdiz on April 18, 2013, 08:01:16 PM

Quote from: CountDeMoney on April 18, 2013, 07:54:32 PM

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on April 18, 2013, 07:44:54 PM

Quote from: Caliga on April 18, 2013, 07:11:27 PM
35 dead, according to the town's mayor. :(

Amazing the difference in press coverage between this and Boston, considering the death impact of both.

Big difference between accidents and terrorism.

Not to the dead people.

Quote from: Razgovory on April 18, 2013, 08:32:02 PM

Quote from: fahdiz on April 18, 2013, 08:01:16 PM

Quote from: CountDeMoney on April 18, 2013, 07:54:32 PM

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on April 18, 2013, 07:44:54 PM

Quote from: Caliga on April 18, 2013, 07:11:27 PM
35 dead, according to the town's mayor. :(

Amazing the difference in press coverage between this and Boston, considering the death impact of both.

Big difference between accidents and terrorism.

Not to the dead people.

Seems kind lame to come back to haunt someone who partially responsible for you death do to poor maintenance.

Quote from: Ed Anger on April 18, 2013, 08:26:03 PM
Kitty litter and wargame counters.

Quote from: dps on April 18, 2013, 09:53:38 PM

Quote from: Ed Anger on April 18, 2013, 08:26:03 PM
Kitty litter and wargame counters.

The kitty litter might be used, but if the wargame counters are CdM's, they're unused.

Well, they might have been used for one turn...

Quote from: CountDeMoney on April 18, 2013, 08:24:57 PM
Shit won't be so fucking funny when my crock pot bomb peppers your scalp with used kitty litter.

Quote from: Admiral Yi on April 18, 2013, 08:22:34 PM
I'm with Captain Occupy.  More than 35 people die on the road every day.

QuoteTexas plant that exploded carried only $1M policy

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Texas fertilizer plant that exploded last month, killing 14 people, injuring more than 200 others and causing tens of millions of dollars in damage to the surrounding area had only $1 million in liability coverage, lawyers said Saturday.

Tyler lawyer Randy C. Roberts said he and other attorneys who have filed lawsuits against West Fertilizer's owners were told Thursday that the plant carried only $1 million in liability insurance. Brook Laskey, an attorney hired by the plant's insurer to represent West Fertilizer, confirmed the amount Saturday in an email to The Associated Press, after the Dallas Morning News first reported it.

"The bottom line is, this lack of insurance coverage is just consistent with the overall lack of responsibility we've seen from the fertilizer plant, starting from the fact that from day one they have yet to acknowledge responsibility," Roberts said.

Roberts said he expects the plant's owner to ask a judge to divide the $1 million in insurance money among the plaintiffs, several of whom he represents, and then file for bankruptcy.

He said he wasn't surprised that the plant was carrying such a small policy.

"It's rare for Texas to require insurance for any kind of hazardous activity," he said. "We have very little oversight of hazardous activities and even less regulation."

On April 17, a fire at the West Fertilizer in West, a town 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Dallas, was quickly followed by an earth-shaking explosion that left a 90-foot (27-meter) wide crater and damaged homes, schools and nursing home within a 37-block blast zone. Among those killed were 10 emergency responders.

State and federal investigators haven't determined what caused the blast.

The plant had reported just months before the blast that it had the capacity to store 270 tons of ammonium nitrate, but it was unknown how much was there at the time of the explosion.

Lawyers will look for any other assets the company might have and search for other responsible parties, he said.

Quote from: sbr on May 05, 2013, 09:59:11 AM
I'm thrilled to see the people of Texas living their dream of liberty, freedom and small government.

Quote from: sbr on May 05, 2013, 05:36:03 PM
Really?  Any interest in enlightening us?

Quote from: Razgovory on May 05, 2013, 05:38:30 PM
I never know what I'm talking about.  I exist in a cloud of uncertainty.

Quote from: sbr on May 05, 2013, 10:41:35 AM
At least we can be sure they won't go crawling to the Feds to deal with the mess the under-insured and under-regulated plant made, right?

Quote from: MadBurgerMaker on May 05, 2013, 05:33:47 PM
The differences between this thread and others I've come across where the people actually know what they're talking about are pretty interesting.

Quote from: Razgovory on May 05, 2013, 05:43:02 PM

Quote from: sbr on May 05, 2013, 10:41:35 AM
At least we can be sure they won't go crawling to the Feds to deal with the mess the under-insured and under-regulated plant made, right?

(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FSCRiP2Z.jpg&hash=acb49da83f278e448f5021f694e29dae444ff777)

Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 05, 2013, 06:10:19 PM
That we know what we're talking about when we can all agree that Texas can be pretty fucking stupid sometimes?  That's no great achievement.  :lol:

Quote from: MadBurgerMaker on May 05, 2013, 06:38:05 PM

Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 05, 2013, 06:10:19 PM
That we know what we're talking about when we can all agree that Texas can be pretty fucking stupid sometimes?  That's no great achievement.  :lol:

No, that you don't know what you're talking about, especially when it comes to the regulatory bodies that deal with these places.  The regulations in Texas are similar or better than most other states, it seems.

It's also interesting how this and animals fucking are the topics Aggies seem to be most able to handle really well.  One of the threads I'm talking about, one on SA, aside from the standard LOLZ TEXAS moron posts like yours, has an Aggie in it who, when faced with football stuff, turns into a frothing retard, but also happens to be an environmental engineer working in the state who is quite familiar with the state regulatory body and is actually providing some good information about how the shit works.  He still probably has a grode jar in his closet though.

Quote from: MadBurgerMaker on May 05, 2013, 06:38:05 PM
No, that you don't know what you're talking about, especially when it comes to the regulatory bodies that deal with these places.  The regulations in Texas are similar or better than most other states, it seems.

It's also interesting how this and animals fucking are the topics Aggies seem to be most able to handle really well.  One of the threads I'm talking about, one on SA, aside from the standard LOLZ TEXAS moron posts like yours, has an Aggie in it who, when faced with football stuff, turns into a frothing retard, but also happens to be an environmental engineer working in the state who is quite familiar with the state regulatory body and is actually providing some good information about how the shit works.  He still probably has a grode jar in his closet though.

Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 05, 2013, 06:53:29 PM
:lol:

Then I suppose all those tremendous mechanisms of governmental oversight and their rich history of Texan regulatory law are lucky that there's one less fertilizer factory to worry about.

Quote(Reuters) - The Texas fertilizer plant that exploded two weeks ago, killing 14 people and injuring about 200, was a repeat target of theft by intruders who tampered with tanks and caused the release of toxic chemicals, police records reviewed by Reuters show.

Police responded to at least 11 reports of burglaries and five separate ammonia leaks at West Fertilizer Co over the past 12 years, according to 911 dispatch logs and criminal offense reports Reuters obtained from the McLennan County Sheriff's office in Waco, Texas through an Open Records Request.

Some of the leaks, including one reported in October 2012, were linked to theft or interference with tank valves.

According to one 2002 crime report, a plant manager told police that intruders were stealing four to five gallons of anhydrous ammonia every three days. The liquid gas can be used to cook methamphetamine, the addictive and illicit stimulant.

In rural areas across the United States, the thriving meth trade has turned storage facilities like West Fertilizer Co and even unattended tanks in farm fields into frequent targets of theft, according to several government and fertilizer industry reports issued over the past 13 years.

The cause of the April 17 blast at the plant in the town of West is still being probed, and investigators have offered no evidence that security breaches contributed to the deadly incident. There also is no indication that the explosion had anything to do with the theft of materials for drug making. Anhydrous ammonia has been ruled out as a cause because the four storage tanks remained intact after the blast, said Rachel Moreno, a spokeswoman for the Texas Fire Marshal's Office.

MANY LEADS

Investigators are pursuing about 100 leads, including a call to an arson hotline and a tip that there had been a fire on the property earlier on the day of the explosion, according to Moreno. Authorities have not said whether either tip was credible. About 80 investigators from various state and federal agencies are contributing to the probe. They hope to determine by May 10 what caused the explosion, Texas Fire Marshal Chris Connealy said at a state legislative hearing on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), one of several state and federal agencies that monitor security at chemical plants, declined to answer questions about the breaches of security at West Fertilizer Co. State investigators also declined to comment.

Thefts of anhydrous ammonia are common in McLennan County, where burglars siphon fertilizer from trailer tanks into five-gallon propane containers, said McLennan County Chief Deputy Sheriff Matt Cawthon, who took up the position in January.

After reviewing crime reports from the past 12 years and speaking to deputies who responded to some of the break-ins, Cawthon said security was clearly lax at the plant.

The perimeter was not fenced, and the facility had no burglar alarms or security guards, he said. "It was a hometown-like situation. Everybody trusts everybody."

Chemical safety experts said the recurrent security breaches at West Fertilizer are troubling because they suggest vulnerability to theft, leaks, fires or explosions. Apart from anhydrous ammonia, the company stored tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be used in bomb-making. No thefts of that substance were reported to police.

"Regardless of what triggered this specific event, the fact that there were lots of burglaries and that they were after ammonia clearly shows this plant was vulnerable to unwanted intruders or even a terrorist attack," said Sam Mannan, a chemical process safety expert at Texas A&M University, who has advised Dow Chemical and others on chemical security.

NEW LAW

Owners of West Fertilizer, responding through a representative, declined to answer questions about specific instances of theft or the level of security at the plant. The company has encouraged its employees to share "all they know" with investigators, said Daniel Keeney, a spokesman for the company.

The current owners of West Fertilizer are Donald Adair, 83, and Wanda Adair, 78, who bought it in 2004. Calls to a number listed for previous owner Emil Plasek were not returned.

In a 2006 permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the company reported it would protect ammonia tanks against theft or tampering and conduct daily equipment inspections. A TCEQ spokesman would not comment about security measures. He said the agency's responsibility is to regulate emissions from the plant, not to oversee security.

Documents from the Texas Department of State Health Services show the West plant was storing 540,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate and 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia in 2012. Ammonium nitrate was among the ingredients in the bomb used by Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, killing 168 people.

After that bombing, Congress passed a law requiring facilities that store large amounts of the chemical to report to the DHS and work with the agency to ensure proper security measures are in place to keep it out of criminal hands and protect against such attacks.

West Fertilizer did not report to DHS, despite storing hundreds of times more ammonium nitrate than the amount that would require it do so. Companies are required to report if they store at least 2,000 pounds of fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate, or 400 pounds of the substance when it's combined with combustible material.

A 2005 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study identified hundreds of cases in 16 states where anhydrous ammonia was stolen for use in meth production. Some illegal labs mix anhydrous ammonia with ephedrine or pseudoephedrine and sodium or lithium to make methamphetamine, the U.S. Department of Justice reported in 2001.

In dozens of instances, the CDC said, the thefts by meth makers siphoning ammonia from tanks caused injuries or forced evacuations because gas was released into the environment. However, cases of ammonia theft have become less frequent since 2006, when new laws restricted the sale of pseudoephedrine, which is found in some common cold drug remedies, according to The Fertilizer Institute, an industry association.

Police records show West Fertilizer began complaining of repeated thefts from the facility in June 2001, when burglars stole 150 pounds of anhydrous ammonia from storage tanks three nights in a row. Nearly a year later, a plant manager told police that thieves were siphoning four-to-five gallons of the liquefied fertilizer every three days.

Randy Plemons, who was chief deputy sheriff during the years when the thefts occurred, declined to discuss specifics of his agency's response to the repeated break-ins.

"Whenever we were notified of the burglaries and thefts we responded to those," he said. "I can't speak to every offense."

Company owners downplayed security risks in documents submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2006, saying thefts had dropped to zero over the preceding 20 months as meth makers now had found a substitute for anhydrous ammonia available at garden nurseries or major retailers.

VERY STRONG ODOR

Yet burglars and trespassers continued to target the facility. Following a series of break-ins in late 2008 and early 2009, including one where a trespasser visited pornographic websites on a secretary's computer, police told plant manager Ted Uptmore - who has worked at the company for decades -- to install a surveillance system. Later documents show the company complied. Uptmore did not respond to phone calls seeking comment for this story.

The last record of tampering was in October 2012, when a 911 caller reported an odor "so strong it can burn your eyes." The firm dispatched Cody Dragoo, an employee often sent after hours to shut leaking valves and look into break-ins. That night, he shut off the valve but reported it had been tampered with.

Two weeks ago, Dragoo, 50, was among those killed in the blast while responding to the fire.

QuoteFertilizer plant blast: How lax security hints at regulatory gaps in Texas

The Texas fertilizer plant, targeted for years by thieves who wanted anhydrous ammonia to produce drugs, reportedly had no fence, alarms, or guards. Yet state regulators raised few security concerns before the deadly blast.

By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer
Christian Science Monitor / May 5, 2013

During testimony before a Texas House committee last week, state regulators did not disclose knowing that thieves had for years exploited lackadaisical security to infiltrate the chemical storage areas of the West Fertilizer Co., which vanished in a massive explosion on April 17.

But plant security is just one of several areas of minimal or absent government oversight that have come to light since the explosion. Fifteen people died and dozens of structures were destroyed when a tank of ammonium nitrate blew up as firefighters tried to douse a fire at the plant.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has steadfastly asserted that the state's pro-business, anti-regulation attitude is not to blame for the explosion or its aftermath. But as a House committee began to ask questions this week of key regulators, no one from the state's major oversight agencies – which included the state chemist, as well as heads of the department of public safety, insurance commission, and environmental quality – mentioned the plant's long record of theft problems, an issue reported in a Reuters exclusive Friday.

The omission points to one of several potential regulatory gaps in how states and the federal government oversee volatile compounds stored near homes and schools, in particular whether laws are strong enough to allow inspectors to force industries like fertilizer plants to beef up costly security and fire suppression equipment on their premises.

"I guess [Texas state regulators] don't want people to know there's no security," says Glenn Smith, the Austin-based author of "The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction."

"The problem is, there are 44 other facilities like this scattered around the state," he says, "and if you listen to the agencies with jurisdiction, none of those [sites] are protected to the degree they should be, and that shouldn't stand. This shouldn't even be a political issue."

With an investigation ongoing at the 15-acre explosion site, there's no information so far to suggest the fire that led to the explosion was related to a security breach.

Moreover, thieves in the past had targeted the plant's anhydrous ammonia tanks, which remained intact after the explosion. Anhydrous ammonia can be used as an ingredient in the illicit cooking of methamphetamines, and thieves across the country target both larger facilities and smaller farm storage tanks, according to government researchers.

Plant officials have said that on several occasions thieves caused air-borne releases from the plant after twisting off valves to get to the anhydrous ammonia.

What exploded in West was up to 542,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, the same fertilizer component used by Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 1996. The West explosion registered a 2.1 on the Richter scale.

But McLennan County Chief Deputy Sheriff Matt Cawthon told Reuters that security at the plant was lax, meaning there were no perimeter fence, no burglar alarms, and no security guards. "Everybody trusts everybody," he explained.

Growing concerns about the requirements of physical security at such plants is magnified by the resistance among appointed state regulators to release information about where hazardous materials are stored, fearing such details could get into terrorist hands, critics say. State agencies have resisted local newspapers' demands for more information on such sites, citing an obscure "confidential information" law.

"The reality is there's plenty of chemical plants out in the open that terrorists can strike if they really want to do this," says Erik Loomis, a historian at the University of Rhode Island who has followed the aftermath in West.

Since the deadly blast, several potential breakdowns have emerged in how Texas oversaw the West plant, even though the plant had been inspected by a variety of federal and state agencies, as recently as February 2012.

• The plant had been cited by at least one federal agency for the failure to have a proper emergency plan, for which it paid a $5,000 fine after correcting the problems and reporting that a short venting of gas was a worst-case scenario at the plant.

• While industries are required by federal law passed after the Oklahoma City bombing to report the storage of major amounts of ammonium nitrate, the West plant never did.

• Texas regulations put most of the onus for safety and planning on local emergency planning committees and the local fire marshal, prompting Nim Kidd, head of the state Office of Emergency Management, to recommend in his testimony to the Texas House committee Wednesday that concerned citizens "go talk to your fire chief, your mayor, or your county judge. That's how planning works in Texas." One problem: Unlike most Texas counties, West doesn't have a fire marshal.

• Texas Insurance Commissioner Elizabeth Kitzman testified that the insurance policy for the West Fertilizer Co. bore "no relationship to the amount of risk that was involved," suggesting that insurance requirement reform could goose the marketplace to play a bigger role in forcing plants to update their safety and security protocols. The plant was insured for $1 million in liability and the explosion caused as much as $100 million in damage, Fox News Latino reported on Saturday.

Yet on Friday, the revelations of theft problems at the plant struck at another potential regulatory weakness: the fact that state regulators acknowledge that their primary role is to ensure fairness in the marketplace, not necessarily harp on problems like security or storage.

Asked by legislators on Wednesday whether the Office of the State Chemist would notify authorities if investigators saw problems with security, State Chemist Tim Herrman said, "There aren't any provisions in the law that really require a certain means of storing chemicals, but ... if we saw that there had been vandalism, theft, or that the perimeter had been breached, or that inventory records had discrepancies, it's very common for us to contact law enforcement officials." Mr. Herrman, however, did not explicitly tell legislators that his office had noticed anything amiss with the West plant's security.

The security problems, it turns out, had appeared in other regulatory paperwork with the state. In 2006 the plant's owners reported to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that problems with thefts had ended, though more thefts were reported as late as October 2012, according to Reuters. The company has claimed it installed security cameras on the property.

Since the explosion, critics around the country have lambasted the state of Texas for its perceived lax regulation. The issue has played especially large in California, a perennial rival of Texas for economic development, where regulations are more onerous for businesses.

Governor Perry lashed out this week at an editorial cartoonist from California who juxtaposed Perry's assertion that Texas' low regulatory requirements have helped the Texas economy "explode" with an image of a massive explosion in West, embellished with the word "Boom."

The cartoon was published after Perry denied that the state regulatory system was to blame for what happened in West. But lawmakers are clearly facing pressure to get to the bottom of the state's role in what happened.

"We're inundated with the whys and whos, and we're trying to clarify what role the state has at each individual level," said state Rep. Joe Pickett, an El Paso Democrat and chairman of the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee. "We're trying to unravel how it happened, and how the state took the plant at its word that there was no chance of a fire or accident there."

US Sen. Barbara Boxer of California said this week that the Senate will also hold hearings on the West disaster, commenting that, "It is critical that we find out how this happened ... [and] look at how the laws on the books are being enforced and whether there is a need to strengthen them."

The push to investigate and possibly tweak regulations in Texas after West, however, may be complicated by the fact that the chief victims, the residents of West, have largely sympathized with the plant owner. Many residents saw the plant as simply a part of the natural risk of living in rural areas, though Mr. Smith, the Austin author, argues that, "I don't think there's any attitude in West that, 'Oh, we're willing to pay this price for the state not regulating fertilizer plants;' I don't think it can go that far."

In the case of West, what University of Rhode Island's Professor Loomis calls a natural American tendency to sympathize with or even be intimidated by industry appeared in a 2002 complaint against the fertilizer plant, in which a concerned resident wrote that, "Particles are falling like snow around town. People are afraid to complain."

QuoteIn a 2006 permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the company reported it would protect ammonia tanks against theft or tampering and conduct daily equipment inspections. A TCEQ spokesman would not comment about security measures. He said the agency's responsibility is to regulate emissions from the plant, not to oversee security.

Documents from the Texas Department of State Health Services show the West plant was storing 540,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate and 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia in 2012. Ammonium nitrate was among the ingredients in the bomb used by Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, killing 168 people.

After that bombing, Congress passed a law requiring facilities that store large amounts of the chemical to report to the DHS and work with the agency to ensure proper security measures are in place to keep it out of criminal hands and protect against such attacks.

West Fertilizer did not report to DHS, despite storing hundreds of times more ammonium nitrate than the amount that would require it do so. Companies are required to report if they store at least 2,000 pounds of fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate, or 400 pounds of the substance when it's combined with combustible material.

Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 05, 2013, 07:18:57 PM
Yeah, go ahead and blame the lack of self-reporting on the agency it's supposed to be reported to, Longhorntard.

Quote from: MadBurgerMaker on May 05, 2013, 07:20:18 PM

Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 05, 2013, 07:18:57 PM
Yeah, go ahead and blame the lack of self-reporting on the agency it's supposed to be reported to, Longhorntard.

I don't know what you want a state environmental agency to do when it's something between the feds and the company.  Tell them they have to report to DHS?  The feds already did that.

Quoteepartment of Public Safety
Texas Division of Emergency Management
Emergency Management Council
Office of the Texas State Chemist
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Texas Department of Agriculture
Department of State Health Services
Texas State Fire Marshal's Office

QuoteEight state agencies were invited to testify at the House Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee hearing, chaired by state Rep. Joseph Pickett, D-El Paso. As the investigation into the cause of the fire and subsequent explosion is still ongoing, many of the lawmakers questions dealt with fertilizer plant regulation in the state generally, and not whether or not the West disaster could have been avoided.

"The intent of this hearing is to try to shed light on where these facilities are located," Pickett said at the outset. "This will be a learning process for the community at large. Ultimately, this is probably going to be a national issue."

What became clear at today's hearing is that among the several state agencies with oversight of fertilizer plants like West, there is no single agency tasked with safety inspections and coordinating with local governments on emergency response.

The suspected culprit in the explosion is ammonium nitrate, which was stored in large quantities at the West Fertilizer Co. There are 1,105 firms in Texas that store ammonium nitrate, according to testimony today from the Department of Public Safety (DPS), with about 42 fertilizer mixing plants like the one in West.

But since ammonium nitrate isn't considered an "extremely hazardous" chemical by state and federal agencies, plants only have to report to authorities if they have more than 10,000 pounds of it on hand. The state could have stricter reporting requirements if it chose to, according to David Lakey, Commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). The maximum amount the West Fertilizer plant reported to the state was 270 tons.

And the burden for communities to know where these chemicals are stored, and how to respond to emergencies at facilities that store them, falls on local officials. There are over 14,000 facilities in Texas that self-report having "extremely hazardous substances" on site, according to Lakey of DSHS. Representatives from that agency testified that chlorine and battery acid are the most common hazardous substances near communities, but that they only oversee reporting, not safety.

"How do they [the public] know if there's a facility like this in their area?" asked state Rep. Ron Simmons, R-Carrollton.

"There's no overarching plan to educate people of what's in their areas," replied Steve McCraw, Director of the Department of Public Safety (DPS). Facilities like West are required to share their reports on safety and hazardous chemicals with local officials and emergency planning committees, but that may not always be the case, and those local committees may not always put plans in place to respond to incidents at plants like the one in West.

"Have we done anything to survey the 41 [fertilizer plants] because of what happened in West?" Pickett asked.

W. Nim Kidd, Assistant Director of DPS and Chief of Emergency Management, answered that his agency doesn't do surveys, but local fire chiefs have the authority to go in and inspect those facilities.

"Could you suggest that to them?" Pickett asked, wondering if the agency could do more to encourage local fire officials to conduct inspections and prepare emergency response plans.

"We have done that through all the planning exercises and training that we provide," Kidd said.

Other agencies testified similarly that they weren't in charge of safety or emergency response oversight for a plant like West. "Our job is to facilitate commerce and provide market protection," Tim Herrman, the State Chemist, testified. His inspectors generally look at fertilizer blends and conduct inspections to make sure that they are secure from theft and vandalism, not inspect for safety or improper storage of chemicals. And there are no state requirements for fire barriers or setbacks for facilities like West.

In some cases, a plant or facility will have an emergency response and evacuation plan because of their liability insurance, Eleanor Kitzman, Commissioner of the Texas Department of Insurance, testified. But fertilizer plants aren't required to have insurance, and in the case of the West plant, their liability insurance "had absolutely no relationship to the amount of risk involved here," Kitzman said.

"We don't have a role in how that insurance is administered, or what types of requirements or safety inspections may be involved," Kitzman testified.

Likewise, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) only has limited regulation over plants like West, permitting for dust and air quality from anhydrous ammonia, but not oversight over its ammonium nitrate. TCEQ Commissioner Bryan Shaw told lawmakers that inspections for plants like West are "uncommon" and "complaint-driven."

While the Texas House hearing was short on answers, on Tuesday U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, announced that the committee would also be leading an investigation into the West disaster and chemical safety laws.

"I cannot rest until we get to the bottom of what caused the disaster in West, Texas and the tragic loss of life," Boxer said in a statement. "It is critical that we find out how this happened." Boxer also released copies of her questions for two federal agencies that had oversight of the plant, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Chemical Safety Board (CSB).

The State Fire Marshal's office said at today's hearing that they expect their investigation into the origin and cause of the fire to be complete by May 10.

Quote from: MadBurgerMaker on May 05, 2013, 06:38:05 PM

Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 05, 2013, 06:10:19 PM
That we know what we're talking about when we can all agree that Texas can be pretty fucking stupid sometimes?  That's no great achievement.  :lol:

No, that you don't know what you're talking about, especially when it comes to the regulatory bodies that deal with these places.  The regulations in Texas are similar or better than most other states, it seems.

It's also interesting how this and animals fucking are the topics Aggies seem to be most able to handle really well.  One of the threads I'm talking about, one on SA, aside from the standard LOLZ TEXAS moron posts like yours, has an Aggie in it who, when faced with football stuff, turns into a frothing retard, but also happens to be an environmental engineer working in the state who is quite familiar with the state regulatory body and is actually providing some good information about how the shit works.  He still probably has a grode jar in his closet though.

E:  He also noted that there are apparently a lot of federal and state level inspectors who are dumb and suck terribly at their jobs.  This is not surprising.

Quote from: MadBurgerMaker on May 05, 2013, 07:44:11 PM
You're the one posting articles about security, which is what they're supposed to work with DHS for.  Your article up there also notes that the place had been inspected by various state and federal agencies as recently as last year. 

It has also been pointed out, although possibly not here because lol, as far as insurance is concerned, that the lack of minimum insurance levels is certainly not something limited to a single state. 

Also, the Fire Chief/Marshal of West is apparently some guy named George Nors, Sr.  I don't know where the idea came from that they had a fire department without a dude in charge.

Quote from: MadBurgerMaker on May 05, 2013, 07:44:11 PM
You're the one posting articles about security, which is what they're supposed to work with DHS for.  Your article up there also notes that the place had been inspected by various state and federal agencies as recently as last year. 

Quote from: sbr on May 05, 2013, 07:51:32 PM
Fire Marshals can be part of the fire department, but are usually a completely separate entity; and I don't ever think they are the chief.  I think most work for the building codes divisions of whatever jurisdiction they are a part of.

Quote from: CdMSecurity's not the only factor involved in safety, silly. 
And just because "federal agencies" stopped by releases Texas of it its obligations?  Great, so somebody from Washington made sure they've got they had a wheelchair ramp.  Yippee.  That makes it all better now.

Quote from: MadBurgerMaker on May 05, 2013, 07:55:30 PM
If the feds are letting the stuff go too, then where else is it all messed up and waiting to explode?

Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 05, 2013, 08:00:48 PM
I blame Texan congressmen and senators interested in destroying the federal budget with the inability of the federal government to do its job adequately.

QuoteAfter West disaster, News study finds U.S. chemical safety data wrong about 90 percent
By JON McCLURE, DANIEL LATHROP and MATT JACOB
Staff Writers, Dallas Morning News

Even the best national data on chemical accidents is wrong nine times out of 10.

A Dallas Morning News analysis of more than 750,000 federal records found pervasive inaccuracies and holes in data on chemical accidents, such as the one in West that killed 15 people and injured more than 300.

In fact, no one at any level of government knows how often serious chemical accidents occur each year in the United States. And there is no plan in place for federal agencies to gather more accurate information.

As a result, the kind of data sharing ordered by President Barack Obama in response to West is unlikely to improve the government's ability to answer even the most basic questions about chemical safety.

"We can track Gross National Product to the second and third decimal, but there is no reliable way of tracking even simple things like how many [chemical] accidents happen," said Sam Mannan, a nationally recognized expert on chemical safety who recently testified before a congressional hearing on West.

"This is just scandalous."

After the West explosion in April, The News asked a simple question: How often do serious or potentially serious industrial chemical accidents occur in Texas and nationwide? After scouring the four federal databases with the most comprehensive information available on chemical safety, The News concluded that there was no way to know.

For a recent four-year period, the paper managed to confirm at least 24 industrial chemical accidents in Texas that resulted in deaths, injuries or evacuations. But the poor data quality guarantees that number does not account for all accidents. Nor was it possible to make a meaningful comparison with other states that would lend important context to the safety picture in Texas.

Large data systems have inherent problems with accuracy — an issue that experts caution will only worsen in an era when huge amounts of electronic data are being collected. Even so, government investigators and researchers have been warning for at least 25 years about the problems with chemical accident data. The News found report after report that said chemical accident data were insufficient to spot even basic accident patterns and suggest solutions.

"The data are insufficient to drive analysis that would help prevent future accidents," said Paul Orum, a chemical safety consultant to environmental groups, who has frequently testified before Congress.

What's needed, experts say, is an overhaul of the data-collection process or the expansion of an existing pilot program that has labored under years of inadequate funding.

Best of the bad

Only one agency collects nationally comprehensive information specifically on chemical accidents. The U.S. Coast Guard's National Response Center receives reports of chemical spills and other accidents from companies, emergency responders and the general public.

But the NRC data is no more than a call log, like a 911 hotline for environmental emergencies, and first reports often turn out to be wrong. Following up those initial reports to update the data and record what actually happened is not part of the center's mission, spokesman Andrew Kennedy said.

Such bad data can lead to bad conclusions. The New York Times, for example, cited the response center's data in a June 1 editorial about the chemical accident dangers revealed by the West explosion. The Times' editorial said that 1,270 people had died as a result of chemical spills and accidents around the country in 2012. But that figure included 907 deaths that didn't involve chemicals and 137 that never happened. They were recorded as a part of training exercises, The News found.

Even when chemical accidents are correctly identified in the data, estimates of injuries and deaths can be way off.

According to the data, only one person died when oxygen tanks exploded on a bus carrying hurricane evacuees near Wilmer, just south of Dallas, in 2005. In fact, 23 elderly residents of an assisted-living facility died that day when a fire in the bus's wheel well ignited the tanks.

Despite these problems, researchers say the National Response Center data is the best single source they have to study these chemical safety issues.

"It's comprehensive, but it's useless data," said Mannan, who heads the Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center at Texas A&M and worked 12 years in private industry as a chemical engineer. "Only 10 percent accuracy. Nowhere near reliable to where you could make statistically valid conclusions."

Recorded accidents

To get reliable numbers for chemical accidents at facilities in Texas, The News tried to verify records in the NRC database with three other national datasets. What followed was a three-month data-mining effort to triangulate NRC data with other databases that should cover many of the same accidents.

In addition to data from the National Response Center, The News examined chemical accident information recorded by:

The National Fire Incident Reporting System, which tracks the activities of participating fire departments that often respond to chemical accidents.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which tracks accidents and injuries at workplaces, including chemical facilities.

The Chemical Safety Board, which maintains a list of major chemical accidents, culled from media reports.

To test the degree to which the four databases overlapped, The News developed a set of matching criteria. If a serious accident was recorded in any data set, the paper attempted to match the records in other data sets according to date and location of the accident, number of fatalities or injuries, or whether there was an evacuation.

The results were disappointing.

During the 2008-11 study period, for example, there were 158 calls to the NRC related to potentially serious chemical accidents at facilities in Texas. But only 12 percent of those could be confirmed in any of the other databases.

The News used the same criteria for California, a state similar to Texas in the size of its population and its chemical industry. California's tougher state-level environmental and workplace safety regulations presumably would produce better reporting and, therefore, more matches. But the data for California was just as bad.

A total of 174 reports were made of serious chemical accidents in California, with only 10 percent confirmed in the other data sets.

The News concluded that there was no systematic way to identify serious accidents among the hundreds of thousands of records in the four datasets. The only way forward was to loosen the matching criteria and read through more than 500 individual accident narratives to identify serious chemical accidents. Doing that, The News was able to confirm at least 24 serious or potentially serious chemical accidents in Texas between 2008 and 2011.

On rough average, that's one every two months — a lot more than make headlines.

Because of limitations in the data, it was also difficult to determine the potential for any one chemical accident to have caused serious harm if not for first responders, or even plain luck.

A 2009 fire at El Dorado Chemical Co. in Bryan is a good example. Like the West fertilizer plant whose stores exploded during a fire April 17, the Bryan facility housed large amounts of ammonium nitrate.

Thousands of Bryan residents were evacuated from their homes when the El Dorado fire erupted. The blaze burned out before setting off a major explosion, but the potential for disaster was eerily similar to that in West.

In the NRC database, though, the El Dorado event is simply reported as a "large chemical fire" that prompted an evacuation.

Had Bryan been recognized as a near miss, lessons could have been learned that might have prevented the explosion in West four years later. Instead, the best source of national data on chemical safety ranks Bryan alongside more commonplace fires with no distinction.

Recalling Bhopal

Government reports citing serious problems with chemical safety data go back to at least the 1980s. That's when an accidental release of methyl isocyanate from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killed more than 5,000 people.

The 1984 disaster spurred the Environmental Protection Agency to attempt to create a chemical accident database. The effort began in 1985. But researchers quickly found that many serious chemical accidents never came to the attention of any federal agency. By 1989, funding for the project had ended.

Former EPA Administrator Bill Ruckelshaus, who led that initiative, said he was looking for hard data to help policymakers ensure that the chemical industry had proper safeguards in place. Then as now, he said, "We should be carefully assessing accidents or instances in which toxic materials have been released and find out ... why that happened and take steps necessary to reduce the chances of it happening in the future."

The News identified at least a dozen subsequent reports from investigators and researchers citing a lack of good data. Moreover, reports repeatedly said that government agencies had the authority to collect the needed data but didn't.

"Here we are 29, 30 years after Bhopal and there is no, absolutely no, way of making any credible statement or answering a simple question: Are we getting better or are we getting worse?" Mannan said.

Recent criticism has focused on the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, an agency launched in 1998 with a mission to investigate chemical accidents that caused or risked fatalities, serious injuries and major property damage.

According to a series of reports by the Government Accountability Office and various inspectors general, the board was supposed to have created a database to help gauge chemical safety trends. But it hasn't yet done so.

Board officials dispute that such an effort is mandatory under statute and say that, even if it were, the board lacks the resources to carry it out.

"There's a lot in the federal government that's authorized in statute but Congress hasn't put any money or focus on," said Daniel Horowitz, the board's managing director.

The board primarily focuses on conducting investigations of individual accidents at the behest of Congress, such as its probe of the fire and explosion in West and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It requested additional funds for the 2014 budget, from $10.5 million to $11.4 million. But there is no specific funding in the budget request for improving data collection and analysis.

"We agree that the current system is very fragmented and incomplete, and it's a problem," Horowitz said.

But it's "somewhat atypical" to have an independent investigative agency collect data, he said. The EPA is better-suited to that task because it already collects accident data as part of its Risk Management Program for extremely hazardous materials, Horowitz said.

That EPA program oversees only certain designated chemicals. Not on its oversight list is ammonium nitrate, the chemical that devastated West.

Plugging the gap

At least three agencies could step up to fix the problems with chemical safety data.

The Chemical Safety Board has the legal authority to create a comprehensive system. The National Response Center already maintains the largest database of preliminary accident reports. But it's unclear what additional resources either would need to improve data collection and whether Congress would appropriate the funds.

The best solution may be a pilot chemical accident data collection effort under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The National Toxic Substances Incident Program gathers data from multiple state and local agencies, in combination with federal resources such as the NRC.

"That's as good a data surveillance program as you will get currently," Mannan said.

But Congress has appropriated only enough funding for 10 states to participate on a cost-sharing basis. A previous accident surveillance program, similar but less comprehensive, had funding for 14 states, one of which was Texas. After the congressional budget cuts, Texas declined to share the cost and dropped out of the program.

"We're trying to get states to buy into it," said Maureen Orr, an epidemiologist with the National Toxic Substances Incident Program. "Unfortunately, we don't have the funding to do every state."

Nor does the program presently receive any funding from either the EPA or the Chemical Safety Board, though both agencies benefit from data-sharing agreements with the program.

"We're always trying to increase partnerships," Orr said.

Combining the duplicative efforts of several agencies, each with its own mandate to capture part of the chemical safety picture, could mean an overall cost reduction, experts said.

"It's extremely important to know what your problems are," Orr said. "It would allow them [states] to target their limited resources."

Industry self-reports

At least one chemical industry group has been collecting its own accident data since 1994.

Over 100 member companies of the American Chemistry Council participate in the program, in which accident and environmental impact data is gathered according to a uniform set of criteria. The data helps show a return on the group's investment in safety, the council says, and that amounts to tens of millions of dollars each year.

"The key concern was that external stakeholders said it's hard to determine if you're making real progress," said Dan Roczniak, senior director of the program. "This was a way to measure hard data that people on the outside wanted to see."

Council spokesman Scott Jensen said small operations often benefit most from the data collected. Without the resources to pay for ongoing safety or research programs, they can learn best practices from the experience of much larger industry players.

Despite the council's efforts, its membership represents only a segment of the chemical-manufacturing industry, which according to the U.S. Census Bureau includes more than 22,000 companies. Moreover, while the council publicly releases company summary data on severe chemical accidents, the data is neither detailed nor comprehensive enough to inform regulations.

In fact, many chemical companies strongly oppose publicly releasing their accident data, Mannan said.

"They say, 'We have enough problems dealing with lawsuits,'" he said. "I mean, I have very good relationships with these people, but this data issue, I just can't get them onboard."

In any case, experts say, relying on companies to self-report accident data is not a very good idea.

The human effort, time and cost required to ensure that data is accurate, uniform and useful for study often runs counter to a company's financial interests.

"The motivation is not always there," said Andy Podgurski, a professor of electrical engineering at Case Western Reserve University and co-author of a study on "Big Bad Data" published in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics.

"Why would a company or organization do data checking? They might do it because there is a liability risk. They might do it because they feel it's the right thing to do," Podgurski said in an interview. "But even in an honest organization, deadline financial pressures will mitigate those efforts."

Quote from: MadBurgerMaker on August 27, 2013, 09:09:39 AM
I think I may drop by Czech Stop on my way up to Ft Worth this weekend (:bleeding: a wedding on kickoff weekend :bleeding:).  Been a while since I've been there.