Contrary to a report that raised the concerns of some legislators, a top Colorado agriculture official says no anhydrous ammonia tanks have gone missing or have been stolen in the state. “To the best of our knowledge,” Deputy State Agriculture Commissioner Jim Miller told Green Markets, “no anhydrous ammonia tanks have gone missing in Colorado.”
The “mystery” arose last week when auditors reported to the legislature that the Colorado Department of Agriculture had lost track of hundreds of tanks, making lawmakers wonder about the lack of an accurate inventory, which they say is a violation of state law. Press reports raised the possibility of the tanks – along with their ammonia content – falling into the hands of methamphetamine producers. There were reports that auditors had found duplicate identification numbers and incomplete records. One state senator said authorities needed to be advised if the tanks had been stolen.
Miller indicated that the confusion arose because of the department’s system of registering only those tanks that had been inspected during the year audited. “The department’s tank registry reflects only those tanks we inspected for year 2009, not the number of tanks that are owned by businesses and private individuals,” Miller explained. “We inspected only those tanks that owners told us were to be placed in service for that year. For example, if a co-op owned 300 tanks but planned to place only 100 of them in service, we inspected the 100 tanks and charged them accordingly because we didn’t want to charge the business or farmer a fee for a tank that wasn’t going to be inspected or used.”
But Miller conceded that the state auditor is correct that statutes plainly require the department to register all anhydrous ammonia tanks each year, and the department will begin doing so. “We are developing a system whereby all tanks are registered, but only those to be placed in service will be inspected for a fee,” he disclosed. “Our intention is to not charge a registration fee per se, but instead to register the tanks at no cost and charge an inspection fee for those to be placed in service. This will meet the requirements of the law without increasing the regulatory burden on tank owners.”
Later he explained to the press, “It’s an important recordkeeping issue because we have to be able to make sure that we know that the tanks that are in use have been inspected, and if they’ve been found to be deficient have been fixed before they’re put into use. We don’t have that mechanism in place now – but we’re going to.” He added that the department works with law enforcement to monitor use of anhydrous ammonia, and is tightening up its accounting.
The Colorado Farm Bureau didn’t want to take an official position, but suggested the matter mainly speaks to the lack of funding because the department doesn’t have the money or staff to track the tanks. Spokesman Shawn Martini suggested, “The tanks may not be ‘lost’ or stolen, they may just be ‘retired’ and have fallen off the grid, so to speak.”