Lawmakers are using recent revelations of a law enforcement sting operation in New York and Pennsylvania to renew the push for regulations on the sale and use of ammonium nitrate.
Earlier this month, it was reported that New York City police investigators posing as apple growers had purchased more than 1,000 pounds of AN in 2004 from Hoosac Valley Farmers Exchange in Schaghticoke, N.Y., and another retail facility in Yardley, Pa., and then constructed a 2,400-pound truck bomb using instructions posted on the Internet (GM Sept. 18, p. 11). In testimony before the Senate committee on Homeland Security, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the operation “demonstrated that safeguards are needed to make it harder to acquire bomb-building material and easier to regulate and track their sales.”
On Sept. 18, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) responded to the testimony by offering three proposals for monitoring AN sales and distribution, including putting inert chemical tracers known as “taggants” in AN in order to trace the material back to its source; requiring sellers to register with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and requiring a tracking mechanism for trucks carrying AN and other hazardous materials.
“This time it was the NYPD building a bomb and driving it around New York to demonstrate how wide open we are to an attack, but we may not be so lucky next time,” Schumer said on Sept. 18. “The fact that two NYPD detectives with no knowledge of bomb-making were able to create an enormous and lethal bomb from directions found on the Internet should serve as yet another wake-up call. The least we could do is take some commonsense, simple steps to know who is buying this explosive and where it is going.”
Schumer said he sent a letter to Congressional conferees on the DHS appropriations bill, urging them to include a provision to mandate taggants in AN. A Schumer press release said requiring taggants “would have a minimal marginal cost to ammonium nitrate producers,” but the expense could be offset by “federal funds to producers to prevent any cost increase to farmers.”
Schumer’s second proposal, requiring identification from buyers of AN and requiring sellers to keep sales records and to be registered with DHS, has surfaced in various forms on Capitol Hill. Similar language is in the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, which Schumer cosponsored and is currently working to get passed on the Senate floor, and in the Secure Handling of Ammonium Nitrate Act of 2006, which received House Homeland Security Committee approval in June and is now awaiting consideration by the full House.
Schumer’s third proposal echoes provisions in current Senate legislation calling for the use of wireless communications and specific route plans for hazmat trucks, and TSA-approved security plants for hazmat carriers. According to Schumer, these measures were added by unanimous consent to a Senate port security bill on Sept. 14.
“There’s an old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Schumer said. “Ammonium nitrate is available, it’s easy to get, and it’s relatively easy to make into a bomb. We shouldn’t be stopping people from selling it, but it shouldn’t be so easy to get either.”
The taggants proposal has surfaced before, including back in 2004 in legislation sponsored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y). That proposal, which drew mixed response from industry and farm groups, ultimately stalled in conference. Sales tracking efforts that direct DHS to promulgate regulations requiring registration of all facilities that sell AN fertilizer and recordkeeping on all purchases of the product have received support from the fertilizer and ag chemical industries, however.
The American Farm Bureau Federation has also voiced tentative support for legislative efforts to monitor the sale and distribution of AN, although it remains opposed to mandates requiring farmers to acquire permits or undergo criminal background checks before purchasing the product.
According to the Hoosac Valley Farmers Exchange, one of the retailers involved in the NYPD sting, the purchasers back in November 2004 provided a driver’s license at the time of purchase, but were limited to 950 pounds of AN because they did not have a hazmat license. After concluding the sale, Hoosac notified police because of suspicions about the sale. Hoosac said it decided about one year ago to stop selling AN.
In addition to the NYPD sting, ABC News ran a story on Sept. 11 detailing its own sting of farm supply stores in North Carolina and Virginia, during which it reportedly purchased a half-ton of AN without having to provide valid identification, and then moved the product to a storage shed a few miles from the White House and Capitol Hill.