Chemicals Blamed in Texas Blast Won't be Stored in Milford Trupointe
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Jordan Fouts-
The company doesn’t handle the same materials the April 17 blast has been attributed to, according to Mike Jackson, chief marketing officer for the Piqua, Ohio-based agriculture company, which is currently building a facility in Milford. The company is also confident in its current safety program, he said.
The railside facility will be used to store grain and fertilizer north of Milford, though Jackson said ammonium nitrate, commonly cited as the cause of the explosion, is not among products the company handles. The high-nitrogen fertilizer is not appropriate to the nutritional needs of plants in the area, he said.
The chemical is not used in fields in Indiana at all, according to Donald Wagenblast, branch manager of farm supplier Winfield Solutions LLC in Mentone.
“It’s not used in the state whatsoever because of all the paperwork required by (the Department of) Homeland Security and because there are other products that do the same thing,” Wagenblast said.
What he said is used in Indiana is liquid nitrogen as well as anhydrous ammonia, which was also stored at the West, Texas, facility. But he said anhydrous ammonia is only known to be an inhalation hazard and not a combustible product.
Jackson said the size of the storage tanks for the Milford facility have not been decided, but that 30,000-gallon tanks are common at other Trupointe facilities.
He said the company has a good track record of safety and that employees continue to train monthly on safety.
“We have no idea if the West, Texas, folks did that, but we certainly do have that kind of rigor and commitment,” he said.
According to a release from the co-op this week, Trupointe facilities are routinely inspected and permitted to show compliance with all regulations at federal and state levels. Regulatory agencies include the Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the Department of Transportation and the Departments of Agriculture at state levels.
Trupointe also reaches out to local emergency management agencies “to assist in proactive product specific training,” the release states.[[In-content Ad]]
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The company doesn’t handle the same materials the April 17 blast has been attributed to, according to Mike Jackson, chief marketing officer for the Piqua, Ohio-based agriculture company, which is currently building a facility in Milford. The company is also confident in its current safety program, he said.
The railside facility will be used to store grain and fertilizer north of Milford, though Jackson said ammonium nitrate, commonly cited as the cause of the explosion, is not among products the company handles. The high-nitrogen fertilizer is not appropriate to the nutritional needs of plants in the area, he said.
The chemical is not used in fields in Indiana at all, according to Donald Wagenblast, branch manager of farm supplier Winfield Solutions LLC in Mentone.
“It’s not used in the state whatsoever because of all the paperwork required by (the Department of) Homeland Security and because there are other products that do the same thing,” Wagenblast said.
What he said is used in Indiana is liquid nitrogen as well as anhydrous ammonia, which was also stored at the West, Texas, facility. But he said anhydrous ammonia is only known to be an inhalation hazard and not a combustible product.
Jackson said the size of the storage tanks for the Milford facility have not been decided, but that 30,000-gallon tanks are common at other Trupointe facilities.
He said the company has a good track record of safety and that employees continue to train monthly on safety.
“We have no idea if the West, Texas, folks did that, but we certainly do have that kind of rigor and commitment,” he said.
According to a release from the co-op this week, Trupointe facilities are routinely inspected and permitted to show compliance with all regulations at federal and state levels. Regulatory agencies include the Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the Department of Transportation and the Departments of Agriculture at state levels.
Trupointe also reaches out to local emergency management agencies “to assist in proactive product specific training,” the release states.[[In-content Ad]]
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