It is being reported that 60,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, a substance used as fertilizer and a component in explosives, went missing as it was shipped by train between Wyoming and California last month.
A railcar loaded with 30 tons of the chemical left Cheyenne, Wyoming, on April 12. The car was found to be empty after it arrived two weeks later at a rail stop in the Mojave Desert, according to a short incident report from the explosives firm that made the shipment.The company, Dyno Nobel, made the report May 10 to the federal National Response Center, or NRC. The report also appeared last week in an NRC database of California incidents managed by the state Office of Emergency Services last Wednesday.
Ammonium nitrate is one of the compounds cited in the Department of Transportation hazardous materials regulations related to transportation security. Shippers of bulk quantities of the substance must have security plans that include personnel review, en route security, and methods to prevent unauthorized access.
The reason for these requirements is that Ammonium-Nitrate-Fuel-Oil mixtures are potent explosives.
Ammonium nitrate was used in 1995 at an attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The explosion killed 168 people and injured approximately 850.
Dyno Nobel, an explosive manufacturing company, is investigating and suspects the material may have leaked from the rail car.
The company said the rail car with the material was sealed when it left a manufacturing site in Cheyenne, Wyo., and the seals “were still intact” when it arrived in Saltdale, Calif.“The initial assessment is that a leak through the bottom gate on the rail car may have developed in transit,” the statement said.A report made on May 10 to the National Response Center, a federal emergency call center for railroad incidents, said that the rail car left Wyoming on April 12 and arrived in California empty.Dyno Nobel said that the rail car was transported back to Wyoming for further investigation and that it had “limited control” of the train’s activity while the cargo was being transported.
Here’s hoping the analysis is correct and the end result of this incident is a super-bloom along the train tracks between California and Wyoming.
Interestingly, there appears to be no Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration administrator, or PHMSA, part of the Transportation Department. This DOT division oversees the regulations related to hazardous materials security and safety during shipping.
PHMSA is responsible for securing the 3.3 million miles of pipelines that snake across the U.S. and limiting environmental damage from crude oil, gas and other substances carried in that labyrinthine network. It dispatches inspectors to the field, writes regulations and fines operators that break its rules.“It’s an agency that often doesn’t get that much scrutiny or attention,” Erin Murphy, an Environmental Defense Fund attorney, said by phone. “It’s really a key agency in a lot of ways.” Without a Senate-confirmed administrator, PHMSA’s agenda and work are diminished, Murphy said. “I would love to see leadership in place.”A White House spokesman did not respond to requests for comment about the status of the nomination. A representative for Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said committee Democrats were not sure why the nomination has been delayed, and a spokesperson for Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the panel, did not provide an on-the-record comment.
Currently, the “acting” administrator is Deputy Administrator Tristan Brown. Perhaps Department of Transportation head Pete Buttigieg can take a break from gushing press interviews to find a qualified individual to take this post?
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