City to Review Ordinances Related to Ammonium Nitrate

By Michael V. Hannigan

Last week’s fertilizer fire may be out, but the lingering issues are far from over in Athens.

Mayor Jerry Don Vaught and Councilman Joe Whatley said today that the Athens City Council intends to review city ordinances related to ammonium nitrate in the coming weeks.

The fire May 29 at the ammonium nitrate storage facility at 105 Larkin Street operated by East Texas Ag Services caused officials to set up an evacuation zone in approximately a five block radius. The evacuation zone was in place from the time of the fire until early Friday afternoon.

Ammonium nitrate is an important fertilizer that was on the premises at both the Athens fire last week and the West Fertilizer Plant fire and explosion in April 2013.

In a State Fire Marshal’s Office report released last month regarding the explosion in West, ammonium nitrate is described as a material that is “capable of detonation or explosive decomposition or explosive reaction, but that require(s) a strong initiating source or that must be heated under confinement before initiation.”

Vaught said the city staff has been working on the city’s zoning ordinance regarding ammonium nitrate. He said there will be an update from the staff on the issue at Monday’s regular council meeting.

City Administrator Pam Burton said the zoning ordinance as it currently stands gives the city the ability to deny a permit to rebuild the fertilizer storage facility, however staff is going to look at rewriting the ordinance to be stricter. The city will looking at a variety of hazardous materials during this process, not just ammonium nitrate, she said.

Burton said that while the city could stop new construction of an ammonium nitrate facility under its current ordinances, the building which burned last week was protected by a grandfather clause because it had been there so long and was not covered under the current zoning ordinance.

Also scheduled at Monday’s meeting is a report from Fire Chief John McQueary regarding the fire.

Burton said a proclamation has also been prepared for Monday lauding emergency personnel and first responders for their actions during the fire.

The council meeting will take place 5:30 p.m. Monday, in the City Council chambers at the City Hall Annex, 501 N. Pinkerton St.