Troubling silence from Pa. on stores of ammonium nitrate
This aerial photo shows the remains of a fertilizer plant destroyed by an explosion in West
The West Texas fertilizer plant explosion in April claimed 15 lives, injuring some 200 more. Pennsylvania has ample stores of ammonium nitrate, the same chemical that blew up West, including a facility some 20 miles outside of Pittsburgh that stockpiles more than 400 times more ammonia, the raw material used in making ammonium nitrate fertilizer, than was stored in West.
Public Source, an investigative news website, did an analysisof Pennsylvania’s stores of ammonia. NewsWorks Tonight Host Dave Heller spoke with Public Source Reporter Bill Heltzel about what he found. Listen to the audio interview with Heltzel in the player above.
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