OT: Explosion at Fertilizer plant in Waco Texas (unknown cause - probably accident)

[Slimpikins]

sorry if Im going sideways but i think its very jurisdictional specific (these days ... at least from my perspective in vancouver) ... i think stuff like this happens in small economically needy towns starving for business investment/jobs for citizens (and yes the corresponding municipal taxation that comes with it) but you just cant easily get re-zoning approval in larger cities ... especially ones that have alot of bureaucracy

my wife works in Burnaby,BC for a business that is classified for municipal zoning purposes as heavy industrial and they were looking to build a new facility ... their expansion/capital investment is being stalled by zoning restrictions ... municipalities (at least here, where we eat granola at each meal) dont want "dirty" or "dangerous" businesses that they think are not part of the "green economy" even if you have the environmental safeguards in place that go beyond federal legislation

and going back to your point about municipal revenues ... its another jurisdictional difference thing up here ... development and building permits dont drive revenues/budgets in large established municipalities ... property taxes do ... especially corporate property taxes

maybe its a communist canada thing???

This is also related(ish)... to what I do for a living. 'Delayed' and 'Absolutely not allowed' are two totally different things, in my experience. Almost every project gets delayed, it is more a question of how much time and money that delay is going to cost.

I do agree the bigger the population, the higher the public scrutiny. But this is hardly a rural or backwater town occurrence. It may be more common than you think (and yes my experience is all based in the US, Canada may very well have different procedures and public policies. Although I should note that this was a smaller town where this plant blew up.)

Again, I am not saying it is right to build around these places. Lord know I would not buy a house in this area. More than anything I am fascinated by the social dynamic that allows it to happen.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

I think within 2000 feet of that plant was a High School, Middle School and Hospital along with the nursing home. I am surprised the town didn't have some sort of evacuation plan or the plant had any alarms. I haven't read or heard anything about that?

I know at our old house in Evans City PA and we used to get the evacuation/alarm notice and plan in the mail every 6 months from MSA (was Mine Safety when we lived there) in case they had a chemical spill or accident. Nothing ever happened but and honestly you never thought anything of it. But after this you think back and wonder what if...

Also growing up my elementary school was in a cool mining town and right across from the school playground was a smoke stack from the coal mine that was underneath us. Once again you never thought anything of it.

Take too much for granted.

Anyway it is sad on what happened and just like Boston you hope and pray for all the folks and just glad this didn't happen while school was in.

We get a free calendar every year with our evacuation plan documents because we're within a 15 mile radius of the nuclear plant here in town.

Not that a fertilizer plant could produce the same damage as a nuclear plant, but they're also not nearly so well regulated.

 

[huskers1217]

Explosion hits fertilizer plant north of Waco, Texas - CNN.com

some reports are coming in 70 dead already. holy crap.

West, Texas fertilizer fire intentionally set, ATF says