A fertilizer safety bill inspired by the 2013 West explosion that killed 15 people is now law and should ensure that no more ammonium nitrate facilities explode, said its author, state Rep. Kyle Kacal, R-College Station.

 

Kacal, whose district includes West, stood with West Mayor Tommy Muska on Monday as Gov. Greg Abbott signed HB 942.

 

“We’re going to make this state safer,” he said. “I hope there’s not another fire at one of these facilities — we cannot prevent those — but a fire should not be catastrophic.”

 

The bill requires ammonium nitrate dealers to allow state fire marshal inspections, to maintain a 30-foot distance between the fertilizer and flammable materials and to report their storage quantities to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality rather than the Department of State Health Services.

 

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