One Year Later: West Ponders New Fertilizer Plant

Aerial view of the West Fertilizer explosion site

Aerial view of the West Fertilizer explosion site

Not far from an enormous crater where a fertilizer plant stood before an explosion there killed 15 people, lifeless and uprooted trees surround boarded-up homes spray-painted with “OK.”

Advertisement

A year ago, that designation was meant to signal that structures had been checked for blast victims but now it might also describe a growing willingness in this central Texas town to build a new fertilizer plant, regardless of potential risk, reports Lisa Maria Garza on Reuters.com.

Top Articles
TFI: Phosphate and Potash Are Critical Minerals, Senate Bill to Solidify

“It’s something that we have to tread lightly on because it’s a very delicate subject, but it’s one we have to tackle,” said West Mayor Tommy Muska who, at a recent town hall meeting, raised the possibility of another plant being built.

“This is an agricultural community and we lost a very valuable industry there,” the mayor said.

The April 17, 2013, explosion at the plant, which had operated for more than 50 years on the north side of town, caused an estimated $100 million in damages. The blast killed first responders racing to contain a fire at the plant.

There are now only cement slabs where the public high school and a nursing home used to be. At the plant site that once drew droves of farmers, a crater 93 feet wide and 10 feet deep is being filled in by construction crews.

Investigators say the source of the explosion was ammonium nitrate being stored at the plant, but they have not identified the cause of the fire that ignited it. Plant owner Donald Adair, who bought the business in 2004 when it was threatened with closure, soon after the incident issued a statement vowing to cooperate with the investigation but has otherwise remained out of the public eye.

Read the full story on Reuters.com.

0
Advertisement