INDUSTRIAL DISASTERS, A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD!

(VanOwensBody, Huff Post, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Another blast, and there goes another industrial disaster where people die, were families are awash in anguish, and lives are forever changed. Insurance companies cringe, and industrial leaders take a quick step backwards, say the proper things, wave a few million dollars around, collect their liability insurance, rebuild and move on…..it’s the nature of the beast.

 

Or in a worst case scenario, the company takes a step backwards, say the proper things, wave a few million dollars around, collect their liability insurance…..and move on to another town in another state, build a brand new facility, leaving injured workers and their families, in many cases, destitute, sealing generation’s fate, undereducated, underemployed, and underpaid.

 

West Texas, a small village of less than 2,800 is located in McLennan County, Texas, in the north-central part of the state. First the people of the community must come to grips with the fact that between 30 and 40 brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, girl friends, boyfriends, and friends have died, and that between 160 to 180 of their fellow inhabitants are in area hospitals, where some are clinging to life from injuries suffered in the Wednesday evening disaster.

 

West Texas was settled in the 1840’s, farm and ranch families were drawn from the east by the rich lands made available by the government sale of land to build schools in Texas. Farmers cultivated the land and grew cotton, wheat, sorghum and raised cattle. The farming community centered around a freshwater spring that became known as Bold Spring. By 1860 Bold Spring, Texas, had a population 300 and provided services like a blacksmith, church and a post office.

 

A railroad passed through the burg in 1881, passing through Thomas West’s land which he had farmed since 1859. Not only did Thomas West farm his land, he served as Bold Spring’s postmaster. A train depot was built on land that West had sold the railroad. In 1892 the town of Bold Springs became West Texas, and the name remains to this day.

 

The West Fertilizer Company is owned by the Donald Adair family, and has had one safety infraction for strong ammonia smells back in 2006. According to one source the West Fertilizer Company is one of just six of its size that now exist in the Lone Star state. The same source also mentioned the fact that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (OSHA) hasn’t inspected the West Texas fertilizer facility since the 2006 complaint.

 

I must add at this point the fact that in the United States there are 7.5 million workplaces, and only 2,218 inspectors that are authorized to check these work places on a multitude of criteria. The number of inspectors that Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (OSHA) has, 2,218, if divided into the workforce of the United States, means that there is 1 inspector for every 57,984 workers.  

 

THE EXPLOSION

An explosion in the evening of April 17 registered 2.1 on the Rector Scale, causing about two minutes of seismographic activity, the initial blast and then more activity caused by a sound wave. The explosion leveled 50 to 60 homes and almost every building surrounding the fertilizer plant.

 

Investigators and officials believe, because the blast was so powerful and massive that it probably involved a significant amount of ammonium nitrate, a chemical that some scientists say should be regulated as an explosive.

In a report filed with the Texas Department of State Health Services on February 26, West Fertilizer Company said that it had 270 ton of ammonium nitrate at the West Texas facility. In addition the facility also had around 100,000 pounds of liquid ammonia. The exact amount of each substance at the time of the explosion was not known.

 

Pentagon explosive officials say that a detonation involving 270 ton of ammonium nitrate would be larger than almost any non-nuclear weapon possessed by the United States. In its filing of papers with state officials, West Fertilizer acknowledged that it had a range of industrial chemicals that it said were “extremely hazardous.”

 

In its dealings with Texas regulators, the company said any accident would not be large enough to cause an explosion. A risk management plan field with the state in 2011 made no mention of ammonia nitrate being stored at the West Texas facility.

 

In 2012 West Fertilizer paid a $5,250 fine to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for storing ammonia in improperly marked tanks and for transporting the material without a security plan. These infractions are serious offenses; about 8 billion pound of ammonia nitrate is produced in the United States every year, half going to agriculture industry and the rest going to the explosive industry.

 

It’s actually a wonder that the entire community of West Texas, and every building, lock, stock and barrel wasn’t simply incinerated. That day, my friends, might be closer then you think, because although West Texas was a smarting disaster, the loss of life, property, and injury probably isn’t big enough for the federal government to move on limiting business from some of their dangerous practices and activities.

 

WEST TEXAS WAS BAD, BUT NOT THAT BAD

Industry in the United States has an abysmal record when it comes to protecting workers or the property surrounding an operation. Time after time, year after year, decade after decade, and century after century, business has shown a propensity to disregard worker health or safety, and to put profits before environment or people.

 

Here in Wisconsin there is a push…..more like a rush to grant iron mining concerns concessions and on environmental issues. My friends, be aware that environmental concessions are just the first part of an industry, mining, that has broken every rule whether environment or worker safety, the rules that are being allowed to be circumvented by this mining company by our state government is just the first salvo in a continuing march to fatten wallets.

 

United States industry has run rampant with regards to worker and surrounding inhabitant safety rules and procedures. At times even the most basic, common sense types of regulations are completely ignored by industry. Without a doubt, big business and industry are their own worst enemies, needing regulation almost in a fatherly atmosphere, because if they aren’t regulated, the following can happen, and almost without exception does.

 

Now understand, it is not my intention to point out only American industrial accidents and disasters, but hey, we don’t live in China, or Scotland, France or Nigeria, so I figured to let those countries deal with their own greedy bastards!

 

 

 

 

(DEFENSE DISASTERS)

December 6, 1917, Halifax explosion, a United States ship loaded with 9000 ton of high explosives destined for France catches fire do to a collision and explodes, killing 2000, injures 9000 and is the biggest explosion until the atomic bomb tests in New Mexico in 1945.

 

July 17, 1944, Port Chicago Disaster, munitions explosion that kills 320 people, 99% black, destroys several ships at Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California.

 

July 11, 2011, Evangelos Florakis Naval Base munitions dump explosion, Cyprus, killing 13 people, among them the Captain of the base, twin brothers, serving as Marines, and four firefighters that went to help.

 

(ENERGY INDUSTRY)

May, 1962, Centralia, Pennsylvania coal mine fire begins, forcing the gradual evacuation of the Centralia borough, the fire continues to burn to this day, 51 years later!

 

March 28, 1979, Three Mile Island accident, partial nuclear melt-down, cause, mechanical failure, followed by a stuck opened valve…..result 13 million curies, (unit of radioactivity) of radioactive gases released into the atmosphere causing…..who knows.

 

December 20, 1980, A Texaco oil rig drilled into a salt mine…..by mistake, transforming the lake Peigneur, a freshwater lake is transformed into a saltwater inland lake.

 

(CHICKEN PROCESSION)

September 3, 1991, Hamlet chicken procession plant catches fire where locked doors trapped workers, resulting in 25 deaths.

 

(MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY)

March 20, 1905, Grover shoe factory disaster, boiler explosion, building collapse and fire kills 58 workers and injured 150 in Brockton, Massachusetts.

 

March 25, 1911, fire in New York City, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory causing the death of 100 workers, who either died in the fire or jumped to their deaths. Exit doors were locked, the elevator was too small, and there was no plan of action in case of a fire. The disaster did however have some good come out of the tragedy, safety rules were either established, or improved.

 

(MINING DISASTERS)

November 3, 1926, Barnes-Hecker mine disaster, collapse of mine workings shortly before noon break, inrush of water, dirt, rock and trees filled the entire mine that was 1000 feet in depth in less than 10 minutes taking 51 lives.

 

It’s pretty easy to become somewhat calloused with regards to the number of people that are killed every day on the job. Industrial leaders seem to come into the game calloused, and with that all American bottom line mentality. It’s obvious that we need government to check…..and balance how industry works, it is however a double edged sword, because without these Captains of industry, there wouldn’t be any jobs, so cooler heads need to temper what goes on in the industrial workplace…..and those cooler heads need to be the either elected or appointed officials that police industry and business.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!