State House members to start asking questions about West explosion
AUSTIN — State lawmakers delving into the West explosion on Wednesday don’t necessarily expect to find answers, but they want to start asking the right questions.
The House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee will hear from eight state agencies that have overlapping responsibilities for hazardous materials. They are particularly interested in the potentially dangerous ammonium nitrate that’s used in fertilizer.
West Fertilizer Co., which reported storing 540,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate in 2012, exploded in a fire April 17, killing 15 people and damaging structures in a 35-block radius.
Committee Chairman Joseph Pickett, D-El Paso, said myriad agencies collect information on hazardous materials, but few have the power to regulate. The agencies share little information and have little guidance on what they should reveal to the public and those who live near the sites where material is kept.
“We’re going to generate more question than we get answers,” Pickett said. “We’re just seeing and hearing things that we don’t know.”
66,000 sites, not 592
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/west-explosion/headlines/20130430-state-house-members-to-start-asking-questions-about-west-explosion.ece
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