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Anhydrous Ammonia - NIMBY

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BigInch

BigInch

Petroleum
Jun 21, 2006
15,161
Hard to understand why this was built within 1/4 mile of all these places. If it happened during the day you could probably add at least 200 dead kids to the total. I hope all the million or so small towns all over the US that have these ammonia transfer plants, or other dangerous chemicals) in the middle of their towns get serious about safety starting ...NOW. Shut them down immediately until they move farther out of town. Lesson: Even little towns need strict zoning laws.

Heart felt sentiments to all those affected. ANOTHER AVOIDABLE TRADEGY.

westplan.PNG



Independent events are seldomly independent.
 
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I would suspect that all those places were built within a 1/4 mile of the existing plant. Not that it makes anything better.
 
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The plant IS at the edge of what probably was a much smaller town, and had been there for ~55 yrs. It's more likely that the houses and developments encroached into the area around the plant, rather than the other way around.

Additionally, it appears that the company's parent was storing a huge amount of ammonium nitrate at the facility

TTFN
faq731-376
7ofakss

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The houses to the north side are obviously newer, so you're probably right.
The problem is that they should not have been allowed to build there without moving the plant first. If that was the case, the company should have warned the town not to do it, or moved out voluntarily. Both are at fault.

Most small towns in Texas, and even some large cities, do not have zoning laws. HOUSTON! FOR INSTANCE, CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT?


Independent events are seldomly independent.
 
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Just looking at it on Google maps, there is also an "Adair Grain" shown at that address. The large silo appears to be old, and the footprint of an old similar-size silo is visible to the north. I suspect that the facility used to be a grain operation rather than a fertilizer operation, so the hazard is not as apparent as you might think after the fact.
 
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As with most catastrophes, it was never a single, seminal, event that could possibly be identified as the "trigger." The oldest maps in Google Earth only date back to 1995, but it's clear from those satellite images that the houses in the local area were probably built in the 70s or 80s, more than 20 yrs after whatever the plant used to be was built. The school located 1500 ft to the south was built between 1995 and 2005.

A sequences of encroachments, both in terms of housing and changes in functionality of the plant, culminating in the storage of up to 54,000 lb of AN. Apparently, the biggest concern was the possibility of odors wafting from the plant into the surrounding areas. Supposedly, no one even raised the issue of catastrophic failure. Looks like there's plenty of blame to go around.

TTFN
faq731-376
7ofakss

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By the way, it looks like there's 20-30,000 towns/cities in the US, not "millions".
 
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Encroachment is always an issue. The city of Virginia Beach came very close to having the Oceana Master Jet Base closed during the last BRAC. Why? Because they allowed houses to encroach on the base despite the Navy's objection to every zoning change. The conservation club I recently joined is always in danger of having it's decades old rifle range, built out in the country, closed. Homes were built adjacent to the property and the homeowners object to the noise. Just seems to be the way. We need some hazardous activities to support our way of life, we don't need to live close enough to walk to work. At least nobody was alllowed to move next to the National Reactor Test Labratory in Idaho. When I went to Prototype out there, it was a 2 hour bus ride to the site.
 
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A relatively unknown issue with the Keystone project is that it will transport Dilbit,- Diluted bitumen, rather than synthetic crude oil. That means that the upgraders and cokers will be built in Texas instead of the northern Canadian semi wilderness. Here is one of the more recent coker fires;
Link
As you can see the weather was somewhat overcast. We could see the glow in the sky 9 miles away and see the flames 7 miles away.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
 
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By the way, I'm curious to know more about this. The Chemical Safety Board is looking into it, and in 6 months or a year, they should have a pretty decent description of what went on. Anyway, the references I'm seeing are to there being two 12,000 gallon tanks of anhydrous ammonia. If you look at the Google satellite photos, that should be the two horizontal pressure tanks just south of the building. Did one of those blow up? I'm not aware of anhydrous ammonia being a big fire or explosion hazard. Or were there other chemicals, ammonium nitrate or something, that went up? Anyway, the large silos on the site were not where the anhydrous ammonia would have been stored.
 
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Looks like there was a rather large (rust colored) tank just to the north center left of the site, possibly for receiving liquid NH3 from rail tankers. Turns out that West plant process AN into ammonium nitrate. That is not as common as the many smaller sites that only store AN and then sell it in smaller quantities, not to say that they do not warrant precaution. One report said the West plant had a permit to store some 50,000 lbs of ammonium nitrate. The number of smaller tanks and mobile bullet tanks scattered around the site indicates that they also sold liquid pressurized AN (around 150-200 psig) for application directly onto plowed soils.

Independent events are seldomly independent.
 
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That large tank looks like an old grain silo, it's got big circulation vents around the perimeter, I think. It's got a rail siding, but I would bet that has been inactive for years, this just does not look like a chemical plant on the Google maps. The 50,000 lbs figure that I've seen came from TCEQ permits for the anhydrous ammonia. (Note that TCEQ is concerned with emissions here, not safety.)
 
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Is it possible that a large amount of ammonia gas leaked and then detonated as a fuel air bomb?

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
 
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Their ammonium nitrate storage got involved in the fire and blew up. I read they had 270 tons on site at their last inventory.

Somewhat similar to an incident in Texas City in 1947 -
Anhydrous ammonia will burn, but it is not easy to get it to burn. Anhydrous ammonia is classified by the U.S. DOT as a non-flammable gas. Ammonia vapor is flammable over a very narrow range of 16% - 25% by volume in air and a strong ignition source at about 1200 F must be present. It is possible, but not probable. Lets see what the investigators say about 2-3 years from now.




Good luck,
Latexman

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Looking at the new photos, it looks like the pressure tanks are still there after the explosion. The 270 tons of ammonium nitrate sounds plausible, I just hadn't seen that anywhere.
 
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A lot of folks mix ammonium nitrate and kerosene or diesel fuel as a poor man's TNT. It has a good punch.

Good luck,
Latexman

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