Texas fertilizer plant blast

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TGT

Social climber

So Cal

Apr 18, 2013 - 04:02pm PT

Yeah, N Y Post, riiiiiiight!

Turns out they got it from CNN

dave729

Trad climber

Western America

Apr 18, 2013 - 04:13pm PT

Spring time field prep means all the local Texas farmers were getting their
fertilizer from there.

Tanker delivery trucks arriving, getting filled up and driving away all day long.

Big hoses getting connected and disconnected from the trucks. Pumps roaring. Nasty smells and end of day boredom and carelessness?

And maybe some spillage and a spark on the transfer pad. Woooosh!!!!!!!!!!

training video for this so called B.L.E.V.E.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UM0jtD_OWLU

Gene

climber

Apr 18, 2013 - 06:15pm PT

WEST, Texas — About 35 people, including 10 first responders, were killed in the Texas fertilizer company explosion Wednesday night, West Mayor Tommy Muska said in an interview with USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/18/waco-texas-plant-explosion/2092769/

Gene

climber

Apr 18, 2013 - 06:28pm PT

Here's the plant with the apartments to the west.

Apartments before...

Apartments after...

This is horrible.

g

EDIT: It looks like the bearing walls are concrete block. More deadly than Doug Fir in a blast.

Dover

Trad climber

New England

Apr 18, 2013 - 06:36pm PT

Wow. Very sad.

SteveW

Trad climber

The state of confusion

Apr 18, 2013 - 07:09pm PT

I wonder if the occupant of the vehicle that was filming
the blast was hurt badly. I can't imagine they weren't. . .

graniteclimber

Trad climber

The Illuminati -- S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Division

Apr 18, 2013 - 07:40pm PT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_nitrate_disasters

healyje

Trad climber

Portland, Oregon

Apr 18, 2013 - 10:58pm PT

Five years earlier, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fined the company $2,300 for not even having a risk management plan in place and for other problems, including poor employee training and lack of a formal maintenance plan.

Last year, the company agreed to pay a $5,250 fine to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for storing ammonia in improperly marked tanks and for transporting the material without a security plan.

And that's exactly how the site looks in the sat photos - lax maintenance, no big deal.

Hopefully these facilities will now be moved up or down the tracks a mile of two in similar towns. Shouldn't be that big a deal to empty a few tanks at the end of the season. And that would be a good, productive use for DHS funds - move and secure all these facilities, institute stringent operating and maintenance standards, and show shabby operators the door.

TGT

Social climber

So Cal

Apr 18, 2013 - 11:20pm PT

Shouldn't be that big a deal to empty a few tanks at the end of the season. And that would be a good, productive use for DHS funds

You've never been in a chemical plant have ya.

Government agencies have an even worse record about these kinds of things.

I'm just finished for now working a project for now that has been a superfund site ever since there was such a thing and still isn't close to being cleaned up. It's a tough site, but bureaucratic ineptness has interfered ever since the 70's. The technology being mandated for cleanup was obsolete 30 years ago.

At least now though there isn't acid running down the streets every time there's a heavy rain, eating the wheels off of parked cars.

healyje

Trad climber

Portland, Oregon

Apr 18, 2013 - 11:45pm PT

Yeah, actually doing stretches of process control work I have, lots of them. These are hardly 'chemical plants'. It's four tanks and two light industrial buildings - moving the whole shebang would be absolutely trivial by 'chemical plant' standards.

golsen

Social climber

kennewick, wa

Apr 18, 2013 - 11:58pm PT

Healyje,

while it is telling that this plant was not in compliance with the EPA for having a Risk Management Plan, I am very interested to see what the Chemical Safety Board finds. Here is my prediction: This plant will almost certainly have violated some parts of OSHA 29CRFR1910.119, Process Safety Management for Highly Hazardous Chemicals (assuming there is any evidence found). This regulation is really the nuts and bolts that would help to prevent an accident.

Unfortunately, I doubt that OSHA has the budget to inspect all of these mom and pop facilities. Furthermore, the great state of Texas may have primacy over the OSHA regs meaning they may or may not have been enforced.

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=9760

I have been trained and worked in this area for about 10 years and it blows my mind at the complacency exhibited by some major companies. Throw a mom and pop company into the mix and I doubt they have the resources to fulfill these regulatory requirements.

It will be interesting to see if they even have a Chemical Engineer or a Chemist on staff, I doubt it.

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Apr 19, 2013 - 06:41pm PT

I worked for USEPA Hqts for many years, designing software for the On Scene Coordinators (OSCs) and Remedial Program Managers (RPMs), and scoring Superfund sites for the National Priority List (NPL) under the CERCLA/RCRA Hazard Ranking System (HRS) rules, and doing 3D models of plume dispersion using sample management from major SF sites in support of DOJ cases against the Principle Responsible Parties (PRPs). The longer I worked there the more concerned I became for the health of our home planet.

Then I supported similar work for the BRAC (DoD Base Realignment Commission)...oh my...

Then I started doing similar work for the DOE National Labs. After working on those for a few years, I didn't worry so much about EPA sites.

Then I went and spent ten years at NASA, managing supercomputers for global climate modeling, designing software for flight controllers managing the International Space Station, and as a member of the systems engineering team for returning to the moon and on towards Mars. Quoting senior astronaut John Young (two Gemini missions, two Apollo missions to the moon, first person to fly the Space Shuttle): "We have to get off this planet, and we have to get off fast!"

I met with an astronaut who had just returned from a six-month tour as commander of the International Space Station. He commented that the main thing we have learned on the ISS is that we don't know how to make a life support system work. I replied that is also the main thing we have learned so far on Planet Earth (which actually should be named Planet Water).

No wonder people pray for miracles...

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Apr 20, 2013 - 09:22am PT

hey there say, folks...

was very sad to hear about this...
being from south texas, for a good part of my life,
i understood it was 'town should not have built there situation'--
from a few situations i have seen, in the past,
there, but sure wondered WHY no one understood the danger :O

thanks for sharing all the various information...
very sad, :(

condolences and prayers for the family and loved ones...
:(

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Apr 20, 2013 - 10:51am PT

http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/19/17818046-texas-fertilizer-plant-also-stored-explosive-chemical-used-in-oklahoma-city-bomb?lite

No room for excuses, someone's to blame, but the human race continues.

philo

Trad climber

Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?

Apr 20, 2013 - 11:03am PT

We don't need all those onerous Federal Government safety regulations and pesky inspectors making life tough on our wonderful and oh so Patriotic "Job Creators". Yeah Right!

Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber

Old and Broken Down in Appalachia

Apr 20, 2013 - 11:17am PT

Don't see what all the fuss is about, afterall, it happened in Texas.

Texas.

philo

Trad climber

Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?

Apr 20, 2013 - 11:30am PT

Exactly Locker. Can you just imagine if the need to comply with those public safety regulations put a dent in Corporate profits or worse yet reduced the size of CEO bonuses? Oh the Horror, oh the HUMANITY! Free Market uber alles.