Despite containing more than 54,000 pounds of highly explosive anhydrous ammonia, operators of the West Fertilizer Company in West, Texas lied to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal regulatory agencies in an effort to avoid inspection. The plant was destroyed in an April 17 explosion that killed 14 and injured 160 people, becoming one of the worst workplace disasters in recent years.
Following the accident, The Dallas Morning News reviewed plant safety reports, finding that plant operations had responded “no” when asked if their facility posed a threat for fire or explosion. The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one.
Operators of the plant lied about the amount of ammonium nitrate and other dangerous chemicals they were storing. The plant was storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the EPA.
In the wake of the disaster, many leading business experts are calling for proper oversight and regulation to increase safety procedures at workplace facilities across the United States.
“You can make the argument and say that we need more regulation — the correct thing to say is that we need the correct regulation. The marketplace left to itself is not self-regulating,” Professor David Schultz, a nationally recognized expert in government, nonprofit and business ethics, told Mint Press News.
Many conservative politicians, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, tend to eschew government regulation, claiming that less oversight creates jobs and improves conditions for business.
“Somebody has to tell the EPA that we don’t need you monkeying around and fiddling around and getting in our business with every kind of regulation you can dream up. You’re doing nothing more than killing jobs. It’s a cemetery for jobs at the EPA,” Perry said during a speech in 2011 as part of his failed bid for the presidency.
The issue of deregulation is one that is raised in other industries as well. “We have seen major mine disasters and problems with food safety. We see a pattern in the last 30-35 years of less regulation in the belief that it would help business development — and generally a belief that the market can fend for itself,” Schultz told Mint Press News
The number and size of large-scale workplace disasters has increased considerably in recent years. In 2010, an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia killed 29 miners. According to a report by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the mine was cited 458 times for safety violations, with 50 of those violations being “for willful or gross negligence.”
“Clearly as we see the [U.S. federal budget sequester-triggered] furloughs it is going to mean fewer meat plants inspectors [and] less drugs that go through FDA review. We will probably see more accidents like this one,” Schultz said.