Editorial Board
Congress’s Role in the Texas Fertilizer Explosion
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Even though it isn’t yet known what caused the deadly explosion last week at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, the facility was clearly too dangerous to be located a few blocks from a middle school, a nursing home and a 50-unit apartment building. The blast killed 14 people, injured some 200, and damaged or flattened dozens of homes.
The plant was storing about 270 tons of explosive ammonium nitrate, a substance sometimes used in bomb-making, as well as 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia, which is poisonous if inhaled and combustible when exposed to fire. Surely, a buffer should have existed between these materials and the little town of West.