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Explosive impacts to ag retailers

 

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The president of the Ag Retailers Association says anhydrous ammonia could be in short supply if a reinterpretation by OSHA of its rules goes into effect.

Daren Coppock tells Brownfield the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has withdrawn a facilities exemption for ag retailers and the clock is ticking for them to become compliant  “Six month is nowhere near enough time to get all of these facilities into compliance.” He says, “The justification that OSHA offered was that this is a response to the incident in West, Texas where ammonium nitrate blew up.”

Coppock says it would seem to make more sense for a regulation on ammonium nitrate rather than a sweeping one on anhydrous ammonia. He says the regulations could have at least a $100 million impact on the industry, costing each ag retail site with anhydrous ammonia at least $20,000 just for the paperwork and planning process.

Coppock says the costs involved may mean some ag retailers exit the anhydrous ammonia business. And, potentially more ammonia will need to be trucked or farmers may buy ammonia tanks since they are exempt from the regulations.  “We think that having a bunch of farmer owned ammonia tanks and trucking ammonia longer distances on highways—neither one of those really furthers the mission of safety that OSHA is supposed to be upholding here.”

The Ag Retailers Association and Fertilizer Institute have filed a lawsuit against the OSHA memorandum for withdrawing the Process Safety Management exemption.

AUDIO: Interview with Daren Coppock

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