That the chemical spill which has currently gotten Monument evacuated… is going to be neatly and safely taken care of and that you’re not going to be in any danger from it?
Because the Chemical Industry, especially those divisions most closely tied to the Military, are betting a hundred percent of Your Ass that if they have a Chernobyl or Fukushima or Bhopal or Texas City happen say, in Downtown Colorado Springs, they’ll be able to cover it up as neatly as they have their other little boo-boos.
What’s that? Texas City? Oh, yeah. Not only were they experiencing a chemical spill, and arresting people for taking pictures, draining the equivalent of the weeks worth of water used in Texas City, Galveston Co Texas in sheer liquid volume of volatile petrochemicals. Volatile means they react with other chemicals very quickly, sometimes explosively. The volatility of some, like Raid and Black Flag insectides, is such that they even kill (most of) the roaches in any given area. Oh, that volatile. This was done by BP at the same time their little boo-boo Earth Day present from last year was going full blast. Still is, but reporting on the damage is being covered up like cat droppings in the litter box. On the scene police brutality to keep nosy citizens from seeing first hand what’s killing them, to a neat little YouTube channel where soothing music and deep mellow voices assure us that all is well, no need to worry, the Smart People are working on it, nothing to see here, citizen, all is Hell…
But that’s not the boo-boo I’m talking about. Some people still think about that and are still trying to get answers and get those answers to US.
No, children, The Boo-Boo in question was a long time ago. End of World War 2 long time.
A cargo ship being loaded at Texas City (Oh, did I mention also that that volatile chemical leak went directly to the Gulf too? No? Bad Me, very Naughty)
But there was a huge stack of fertilizer on the pier. The fertilizer is Ammonia Nitrate.
One of the most nitrogen rich naturally occuring chemicals. Nitrogen increases volatility as well. Plants need nitrogen in the soil to metabolize other chemicals like Oxygen, Water, carbon dioxide, sugars, starches, fiber and proteins. One way to increase nitrogen is to use legume crops on a rotation basis, beans, peas, peanuts, clover…
Another is to add Anhydrous Ammonia. Much like Ammonia Nitrate it has a higher percentage of its mass in Nitrogen. Difference being Ammonia Nitrate has one extra nitrogen atom in the molecule and Anhydrous has one less hydrogen atom than the ammonia you’re accustomed to using to clean your glass.
And then there’s Nitric Acid. Used in, among other things, production of fertilizer, refining metals, making Explosives ooooo…
Bet some of the smarter readers were wondering when I was going to bring it back to all that Ammonia Nitrate, just a’ sittin’ on the dock of the bay, in the very Hot Texas Sunshine, high explosive Ammonia Nitrate, just heating up…
Now, children, what do YOU think happened on that fateful day?
From Wikipedia:
The Texas City Disaster is the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history. The incident took place on April 16, 1947, and began with a mid-morning fire on board the French-registered vessel SS Grandcamp which was docked in the Port of Texas City. The fire detonated approximately 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate[1] and the resulting chain reaction of fires and explosions killed at least 581 people.[2] These events also triggered the first ever class action lawsuit against the United States government, under the then-recently enacted Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), on behalf of 8,485 victims
Oh NO! Not the Class Action Lawsuit! OMG that paved the way for all those Indian peasants who were the survivors of the Bhopal chemical leak from a Union Carbide plant to Oppress the Poor, poor victimized by a lawsuit (where they had to pay an outrageous sum of less than three hundred dollars apiece for Dead Children) Corporate Sucks! Wicked, Bad, Naughty Tort Laws, assuming that People had the same right to petition the government for redress of grievances as the Corporation does!
And, to further PISS OFF the Tort Reform faction of the Tea Party, it was at a time when safety regulations were blatantly ignored.
Note the date, (of the Texas City disasters, both of them) April 16th. Let’s go to the Terrorist Wing of the TeaParty/Millitia/Minutemen Republicans. On April 19th 1995 Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols and an unidentified Third Murderer detonated a truck full of Ammonia Nitrate mixed with diesel fuel in front of a federal building in Oklahoma City, aiming for the IRS and BATF offices. Which were virtually untouched.
What WAS “touched” were the buildings across the street, and the offices facing the explosion on either side. One of which was a Day Care Center.
WHY do Right Wing Terrorist Freaks hate American Children?
But they were loading the ship, not unloading. The Ammonia Nitrate had come down from Nebraska on a rail line very similar to the one that passes through both Downtown and Monument. Like the one where a chemical train made a boo-boo today in Monument and could just as easily have been Denver, or Pueblo, or El Paso Texas.
Accidents happen, sure. And the more you push your luck, the more times the accidents happen.
This one just happened to happen, at at time when Republican TeaBag Fanatics are screaming that they should be allowed to slash safety and environmental regulations even further, that they have a God-Given RIGHT to poison our water land and air, a RIGHT to risk and sometimes accomplish Killing us and our children, and that we, in contrast, have a Right To Shut the Hell Up About It. And we’d better not dare file a claim for compensation when they do it to us and our kids either. They are the Royal Corporations, Bow Before Them, O Ye Peasants!