Authorities hunt keg of potent chemical that fell from truck in North Dako

[Kadie]

Authorities hunt keg of potent chemical that fell from truck in North Dakota

Thursday, October 7, 2004

(10-07) 10:29 PDT DEVILS LAKE, N.D. (AP) --

Three drums filled with sodium cyanide fell off a truck, and one barrel remains missing. Authorities said beekeepers planned to use the dangerous chemical as a pesticide and could be fined.

The Ramsey County sheriff's office has declined to say how or when the kegs of sodium cyanide disappeared or who was involved, citing the pending investigation.

Farmers found two 30-gallon kegs alongside a state highway east of Devils Lake on Sept. 30. The missing barrel, half that size, is believed to have fallen off the back of the truck somewhere between Devils Lake, in the east-central part of the state, and Cavalier, near the state's northeast corner.

The container weighs more than 100 pounds and is labeled with the chemical's name and a skull and crossbones.

The chemical was being brought into the state by beekeepers to sterilize equipment and kill bees at the season's end, said Andrew Thostenson, North Dakota State University pesticide specialist.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/10/07/national1242EDT0583.DTL

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Nope... no wmd's here... none at all... nope... nope... every

chemical plant, nuclear plant, fertilizer plant, whatever plant is a source of WMD, protected or not, like it or not. So now we are blowing 200 billion that could have been spent to shore up things here. How stupid is that? Pretty stupid.

[skylarmae]

2. Man, this is something that should be reprimanded

with heavy fines. I mean heavy. The transport companies wouldn't
have this kind of dangerous failure. Something has to be done before the greedy companies will insure this type of industrial accident doesn't happen (or very rarely).

[eyepaddle]

3. Only a $6000 fine?

I work for a company that collects and disposes of Hazardous Waste & Chemicals--including the ND dept. of Ag's official waste pesticide program, and I can't believe that this little goof will result in only a few $6000 fines.

That prosecutor isn't trying very hard if that's all he comes up with. I imagine that's just for the FIFRA (pesticide law) violation of using a something as a pesticide for which it is not labeled. To put that in perspective, if you use a root worm killer to go after your squirrel problem you'd get the same fine. That should be just the tip of the iceberg--I can't wait to hear what the DOT has to say about this. Hell, my employer (and I'm sure this is standard industry practice) will terminate employees for miscounting the number of pieces on a truckload--let alone having any of the things fall off!

[nofurylike]

4. if the company doesn't produce ALL of the chemical said "lost,"

charge it under pat act!

insane.

again, showing how easy...

inviting ter...


damn



peace

[DrWeird]

5. Oh, only NaCN.

I saw "potent chemcial" and figured it would be worse.

[MADem]

7. My first thought...

...on reading the headline is that is was weewee's stash of blow to get him through the rest of the campaign season.:shrug:

[Parche]

6. wmd

The whole state of ND is a WMD
with Minot AFB and Grand Forks AFB 300 minuteman 3 nukular missiles

(of course i was stationed at Minot AFB)

[eyepaddle]

8. Minot..a hell of a TOWWN!

Did you ever hear anything about a town near Minot named Teghis (sp?) and some possible connection to the son of sam?

[NickB79]

9. Ugh, Minot

I spent one whole hr there waiting while on an Amtrak train from MN to Whitefish, Montana, and that was more than long enough for me. Well, maybe I shouldn't be so harse on Minot; the woman sitting next to me who almost had a heart attack in excitement over seeing bison and pronghorns for the first time got on my nerves a bit too. I'll take my lakes and forests any day over those flat rolling plains :-)

[Lizzie Borden]

11. Me too!

I had to spend a winter living in Grand Forks when my ex was in the Air Farce. It was awful.

[mom cat]

10. Don't worry! We will have a misle defence system soon. Then we

will all be safe forever.

[Stryguy]

12. Apparently N.D. has more WMDs then Iraq. (eom)