There were no sprinklers. No firewalls. No water delugesystems. Safety inspections were rare at
the fertilizer company in West,Texas, that exploded and killed at least 14 people this week.This is not
unusual.Smallfertilizer plants nationwide fall under the purview of severalgovernment agencies, each with a
specific concern and none required tocoordinate with others on what they have found.The smalldistributors —
there are as many of 1,150 in Texas alone — are part of aregulatory system that focuses on large
installations and industries,though many of the small plants contain enough agricultural chemicals tofuel a
major explosion.The plant in West had ammonium nitrate,the chemical used to build the bomb that blew up the
Alfred P. Murrahfederal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people. Accordingto a document filed
in 2012 with the Texas Department of State HealthServices, the maximum amount of this "extremely
hazardous substance" theplant could store in one container was 90 tons, and the most it couldhave on
site was 270 tons. It is unknown how much was onsite at anygiven time, or at the time of the explosion.It
was alsoauthorized to handle up to 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia, asubstance the Texas environmental
agency considers flammable andpotentially toxic."This type of facility is a minor source of
airemissions," Ramiro Garcia, the head of enforcement and compliance atthe Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality, told The AssociatedPress."So the inspections are complaint driven. We usually
look at more of the major facilities."Nofederal agency determines how close a facility handling
potentiallydangerous substances can be to population centers, and in many states,including Texas, many of
these decisions are left up to local zoningauthorities. And in Texas, the state’s minimal approach to zoning
putsplants just yards away from schools, houses and other populated areas,as was the case in West.That plant
received a special permitbecause it was less than 3,000 feet from a school. The damage from theblast
destroyed an apartment complex, nursing home and houses in afour-block area.State and federal investigators
have not yetdetermined the cause of the disaster, which occurred Wednesday nightafter a fire broke out at
the site after work hours. The explosion thatfollowed could be heard miles away and was so powerful it
registered as asmall earthquake.The West Fertilizer Co. stored, distributed andblended fertilizers for use
by farmers around the Central Texascommunity. The plant opened in 1962 outside the rural town of 2,800,
butdevelopment gradually crept closer. Wednesday night, residents andrescue workers tried to evacuate the
area as the fire consumed theplant.Donald Adair, the plant’s owner, said in a statement Fridayhe was
cooperating with the investigation and expressed sympathy forthe victims. He has not returned phone calls
seeking comment.Over the years, the fertilizer company was fined and cited for violations by federal and
state agencies.Lastsummer, the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administrationassessed a $10,000
fine against West Fertilizer for improperly labelingstorage tanks and preparing to transfer chemicals
without a securityplan. The company paid $5,250 after reporting it had corrected theproblems.The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency also cited theplant for not having an up-to-date risk management plan. That
problemwas also resolved, and the company submitted a new plan in 2011. Thatplan, however, said the company
did not believe it was storing orhandling any flammable substances and didn’t list fire or an explosionas a
danger.David Gray, an EPA spokesman in Dallas, said thecompany’s plan identified a worst-case scenario as an
accidental releaseof all 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia, which at room temperature isa gas."This
scenario is a plausible worse-case scenario as gaseous anhydrous ammonia can be lethal," Gray
said.Therisk management plan also did not cite a possible explosion of ammoniumnitrate, the solid granular
fertilizer stored at the site. But thatwould not be unusual, he said, because ammonium nitrate is not
regulatedunder the Clean Air Act.The plant’s plan said there was no riskof fire or explosion and noted they
had no sprinklers, water deluge orother safety mechanisms installed."We do not yet know what happened
at this facility. The ongoing investigation will inform us on the plan’s adequacy," Gray said.TheTexas
Commission on Environmental Quality also dealt with the companyand issued a permit for handling anhydrous
ammonia, which requiressafety equipment the company had told the EPA it didn’t have. But TCEQacknowledged it
may never have checked to confirm the equipment wasthere."It’s a minor source under the Clean Air Act
so it doesn’tget much scrutiny at all," said Neil Carman, a Sierra Club clean airexpert and chemist who
used to work for the TCEQ.The company’slast contact with regulation may have come as recently as April 5,
whenthe Texas Office of the State Chemist inspected the plant. But thatagency focuses mostly on ensuring
that commercial fertilizers areproperly labeled and blended, said Roger Hoestenbach, the office’sassociate
director. His inspectors found no problems, he said, but theywould not have checked for safety systems such
as sprinklers. Thatoffice also provided the company with the required license to store andhandle ammonia
nitrate and renewed it in September after a summerinspection, he said.Many other towns in Texas have small
fertilizer distributors operating under similar regulations near populated areas.MattMurray, owner of ABC
Fertilizer and Supply in Corsicana, bought hisfacility about 15 years ago. It sits in an industrial zone in
the townof about 23,700 people, but in a community barely five miles long, it isstill not far from the
population center, he said."Every little community, town that’s in Texas, has one of these," he
said.Murray’s facility also has a state license to sell ammonium nitrate.Eventhough Murray said he has
discussed an evacuation plan with his localfire chief, there is nothing in writing. And he isn’t required to
have aformal plan. That may be changing now, he said."It’s been something that’s been brewing for years
and years, ever since Oklahoma," he said.____Plushnick-Masti, who can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP , reported
from Houston. Gillum, who can be followed at https://twitter.com/jackgillum , reported from
Washington.Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.