Evacuation Grounds is an apt home for this Queensland Telegraph online article quoting the concerns of our own Peter Neilsen. Is Peter being over-alarmist? I don't think so but let's hope we never find out...
By John Mikkelsen
A GLADSTONE
district resident claims the region is sitting on a potential time bomb that
could rattle windows in Rockhampton, following the devastating explosion that
flattened a community on the outskirts of Waco, Texas last week (pictured).
Peter
Neilsen, of Mt Larcom, points to the explosives storage facility at Bajool and
the Orica chemicals plant at Yarwun, which represent many times more ammonium
nitrate than the small amount of ammonium fertiliser blamed for the Texas
explosion which caused mass fatalities.
Texan
authorities initially said the blast on April 18, thought to have been caused
by an industrial accident, had resulted in 15 deaths but subsequent reports
have quoted the toll as 25 or possibly as many as 60 or 70.
Neilsen does not present as an overly nervous type, but he is also
mindful of the explosion which tore through a natural gas pipeline facility in
Raynosa, Mexico last September, killing 26 workers. Massive pipelines to
service the multi-billion dollar LNG plants on Curtis Island will also pass
close to his town on their way to Gladstone.
“With a
combination of the LNG and Orica, Gladstone is sitting on a time bomb,” he
claimed.
“The 24.5
metric tonnes of anhydrous ammonia (a much less volatile product than ammonium
nitrate) that caused so much destruction in Waco Texas, is less than the load
of the highly explosive ammonium nitrate being carried on a single B double
trailer.
“We pass
many semis and B doubles heading towards the Bruce Highway loaded with ammonium
nitrate every time we go to town.
“Just one
semi last week had 26 one tonne bags of ammonium nitrate (a normal single
trailer load) which is six tonnes more than the material that exploded in Waco
and more volatile if it is activated,” Neilsen said.
However a
spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources and Mines said the
fertiliser plant in Waco was using anhydrous ammonia not ammonium nitrate and
in Queensland this product was regulated.
“Most
ammonium nitrate is imported through Port Alma south of Rockhampton while
smaller quantities may arrive through Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns. All
ports have strict security and safety controls in place,” the spokesperson
said.
“Significant
amounts of ammonium nitrate are also transported by road from ports or
manufacturing plants to mines where it is the main ingredient in explosives.
“Transport
of ammonium nitrate is subject to strict security and safety provisions and
routine vehicle checks.
“Ammonium
nitrate must be transported in a locked container or vessel or be under
constant surveillance by an authorised person accompanying the load.”
Mr Neilsen
said there were also many thousands of tonnes of the highly explosive material
stored within a couple of hundred metres of the Bruce Highway at Bajool.
“A couple
of years ago there was almost an explosion at the Bajool explosive battery
where the thousands of tonnes of explosives are stored.
“A bearing
on a conveyor seized and overheated causing the contents of a storage tank to
overheat and start to emit vapour that was potentially extremely explosive.
“The
highway was closed several kilometres away to the north and south and the
surrounding town and residences were being prepared to evacuate for their
safety.
“It was
stated in the press at the time that if the storage hopper had exploded it
would have blown out windows in Rockhampton, 35kms away (in a straight line).”
The
Department’s spokesperson said there were significant safety requirements to
ensure storage facilities and manufacturing plants were not located in close
proximity to populated areas and had effective safety and health risk
management plans and security plans in place to minimise the risk of fire or
contamination that could lead to an explosion.
