Aftermath of Port Neal fertilizer explosion
By Dave Fehling, KUHF News for StateImpact Texas
SIOUX CITY – There’s a community in Iowa that now has a tragic link to the town of West, Texas. Both communities have had fertilizer plants that have exploded, killing and injuring people.
In Iowa, it happened early one morning in December 1994 a few miles south of Sioux City. David Tripp lived in the area.
DAVID TRIPP: “I actually grew up in Salix which is just five miles from the plant. If I remember, back then, they didn’t evacuate the towns.”
Didn’t evacuate the towns even though a big explosion had just ripped through a fertilizer plant. The blast killed four workers and seriously injured 18 others. But unlike in Texas where neighborhoods were just a couple hundred feet from the West Fertilizer Co. plant, the site in Iowa was located along the Missouri River with a couple miles of farm fields separating it from the nearest house.
The US Environmental Protection Agency would later trace the cause to a series of what it said were mistakes in the chemical process used to produce the ammonia nitrate. Investigators said the mistakes were made because plant personnel were not aware of “many of the hazards” of the ammonia nitrate, alleging the plant had failed to do a “hazards analysis.”
Now, almost two decades later, the plant has a new owner, CF Industries, which is planning a $1.7 billion-dollar expansion. Similar to what’s happening at petrochemical plants along the Texas Gulf Coast, the company is taking advantage of low natural gas prices. Natural gas is used in the chemical process and accounts for a big chunk of the cost of making fertilizer. Iowa’s Lt. governor hails the expansion as the biggest single such investment in Iowa’s history. And David Tripp, the guy who grew up near the plant, is now an elected county supervisor. He says the county is working with the company on safety plans for the expansion.
TRIPP: “I have not heard anybody even question the risk factor of an explosion like that but it may come up now. Hopefully nothing goes wrong like what happened in Texas. We feel for that community right now.”
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