Chemical plant safetyTexas chemical plant disaster highlights dangers at similar sites
Following a deadly 17 April 2013 fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas which took fifteen lives, officials from the managing company moved to shutter similar sites, including an urban one in Pennsylvania. Among the plants to be closed was an El Dorado Chemical Company plant in Pittsburgh, located right next to residential area and a school – on the site of which the company stored around thirty tons of ammonium nitrate. The city emergency management department was aware that the plant was to be closed, but they were not informed of the date – or the fact that the company chose to move the volatile and toxic material. City leaders say that using thirty-three trains to carry the toxic materials through the city was even more dangerous than leaving it in storage on site.
Following a deadly 17 April 2013 fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas which took fifteen lives, officials from the managing company moved to shutter similar sites, including an urban one in Pennsylvania.
As theDaily Tribune reports, details are emerging that only a few months after the highly publicized disaster in Texas, the managers of the El Dorado Chemical Company moved to make sure five other plants “went dark.”
This included the Pittsburgh facility, which was reported to have stored around thirty tons of ammonium nitrate — the combustible matter responsible for the West disaster — at the time of the 17 April incident.
The Pittsburgh site was particularly notable because it was close to both schools, residences, and a funeral home in the Fulton Street area of the city. Compounding the danger, a propane yard was also nearby.
Pittsburgh mayor Shawn Kennington said that after the Texas incident, he “Met with the police and fire chief and county officials and the two chemical companies in town to see what they were doing as far as safety precautions and to make sure that we were kept abreast of chemicals they had. We met with them on more than one occasion.”
At this time, El Dorado Chemical Company and city and county officials “Agreed to put plans in place for routine inspections and communication between the officials and companies,” according to City Manager Clint Hardeman. He added that all parties were satisfied with the handling of the situation.
Some months following that, however, Hardeman discovered that El Dorado had completely closed the site and silently moved all of the chemicals.
While some — including Superintendent Judy Pollan — were relieved that the company was now gone, others questioned the danger of moving the thirty tons of chemicals around within the city. The fire chief, county judge, and emergency management coordinator knew the plant was closed, but nobody had any sense of the date. Many officials claim that the movement of the thirty-three trains carrying toxic materials through the city at the time was much more of a danger.
“They were just gone one day,” said County Judge Morris Cravey.
In light of much of this, the “federal risk management emergency response laws” from the 1980s are now being seen as outdated and inefective. One suggestion is to institute fire codes for cities smaller than 250,000 residents, which include Pittsburgh. Further, the fire marshal’s office has suggested rezoning, which would eliminate arrangements similar to the those allowing a chemical plant to border schools and homes.
To date, no zoning adjustments have been made.
