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Either way, the owner of the West fertilizer plant never reported to Homeland Security that it routinely stored 540,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate next to a school, playground, apartment building and nursing home in the town of 2,800. So, of course, Homeland Security didn't know.
Long before 9-11 or Oklahoma City, long before the current owner bought the fertilizer plant, OSHA inspected it in 1985. OSHA didn't return in the ensuing 28 years. But that's not surprising considering OSHA has so few inspectors that it would take 131 years for it to examine every American workplace one time.
The West plant did submit a risk management plan to the EPA because it kept 54,000 pounds of another hazardous fertilizer, anhydrous ammonia, which could kill large numbers of people if leaked. In its most recent plan, the plant reported no risk of fire or explosion, saying the most serious threat was a 10-minute release of anhydrous ammonia.
The underfunded and overworked CSB, which has only 20 investigators nationwide, recommended in 2002 that the EPA require reporting of hazardous materials like ammonium nitrate. But agriculture and fertilizer lobbyists opposed that, and the anti-regulation Bush administration took no action.
Over the years, the plant in West vented anhydrous ammonia in violation of its permits and moved tanks without informing authorities as required, but encountered only finger wagging and minor sanctions from state regulators in Texas which boasts of its anti-regulatory regime.
Corporations aren't moral entities. They won't follow safety rules unless forced.
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