Council Bluffs, Iowa-Bunge North America is saying only that it is in the process of evaluating possible locations for construction of a new fertilizer warehouse, but indications are that Council Bluffs is getting primary consideration. Press reports have stated that a Bunge attorney has advised the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors that the company wants to add a $13 million fertilizer warehouse. Attorney Lawrence Beckman of Council Bluffs reportedly asked the board to provide a tax abatement for the structure; if the board does not agree, the company will likely build the warehouse elsewhere. County officials are said to have indicated a decision will be made before the end of the month. The project is expected to account for between four and six new jobs, and would require additional rail lines in the county. Deb Seidel, Bunge North America director of communications, emailed Green Markets that Bunge is in the process of evaluating possible locations for the construction of a fertilizer warehouse. “While Council Bluffs is among the sites under consideration, there are a number of factors that have to be resolved before a decision to move forward with the project is made,” Seidel reported. “If the company decides to move forward on this project, we would make an announcement at the appropriate time.” Bunge North America operates in the United States, Canada, and Mexico as an operating arm of Bunge Ltd. Headquarters are located in St. Louis, Missouri, with administrative offices in Oakville, Ontario, Canada; Washington, D.C.; and Mexico City, Mexico. As a leading North American agribusiness and food processing company, Bunge operates grain elevators, grain and oilseed processing plants, edible oil refineries, and packaging facilities.

Monroeville, Ind.-Approximately 2,000 gallons of 28 percent liquid nitrogen fertilizer were spilled last Wednesday, April 21, when a poly tank on a flatbed driven by an Ohio farmer came loose and ruptured on the highway, according to the Indiana Department of Emergency Response (IDEM). About 200 gallons were spilled from a smaller tank when a hose ruptured. IDEM spokeswoman Amy Hartsock told Green Markets that crews responded from agencies on both sides of the state line and had most of the clean-up work completed by Thursday afternoon. She said the liquid fertilizer affected soil in the area as well as nearly a half mile of a nearby creek. The soil was cleaned up and hauled away. “They were able to dam up the creek, and that was cleaned up with vacuum trucks and a honey wagon and land-applied to a nearby field,” Hartsock reported. The only remaining part of the response was cleaning out field tiles that accumulated the fertilizer, and that part was expected to be finished late on Thursday.

Salt Lake City-A March 31 grass fire southwest of Cheyenne, Wyo., at no time threatened the Dyno Nobel ammonium nitrate plant located outside the city, according to Dyno Nobel headquarters offices located here. Press reports called the grass fire, which was at first considered extinguished and then re-ignited, one of the largest in recent memory, and indicated it burned behind the Dyno Nobel plant. Approximately 700 acres were involved. “There must have been some cow patties or small areas around there with the low humidity during the day that picked up and reignited,” Laramie County Fire District 2 spokesman Lew Simpson was quoted as saying. A statement from Dyno Nobel said the grass fire was well managed and there were no injuries, and no structures were threatened. Personnel at the site were on alert and closely monitored firefighters as they fought the grass fire. The Dyno Nobel site has its own fire truck and has professionally trained personnel to handle emergency situations. Site drills are held regularly with various emergency responders in the area.

Olympia, Wash.-Agriculture interests, joined by a broad coalition, succeeded in preventing passage in the Washington State Legislature of a tax on hazardous chemicals to fund stormwater clean-up efforts that would have hit fertilizer twice. But environmentalists bent on protecting Puget Sound and other waterways from pollution are expected to make another try next session. “We kept it from passing this time,” Scott Dahlman, a public policy analyst for the Washington State Farm Bureau, told Green Markets. “That was because of a broad coalition that formed as the session wore down there with agriculture, business associations including the state chamber of commerce, petroleum companies and local gas stations.” Dahlman said fertilizer would have been taxed at the manufacturing level because it’s a petroleum derivative, as well as at the wholesale level. “It would have increased costs because of the increase in petroleum taxes,” he explained. In a letter to lawmakers opposing the tax, the Washington Farm Bureau cited the situation that would have confronted potato farmers with their crop value of potatoes already being hammered by retaliatory tariffs from Mexico. If the hazardous chemicals tax went from 0.7 percent to 2 percent as proposed, the Farm Bureau said the result would have been profits plunging for potato farmers another 20 percent. “Of course, the proposed tax increase would also spread its damage through the rest of the state’s agriculture industry, which generates $38 billion for Washington’s economy along with 160,000 jobs,” one blog declared on the Internet. Still, according to Dahlman, the stormwater tax remains a big priority for environmental groups in this area. They claim that petroleum products represent nearly 60 percent of the pollution that flows from streets and storm drains into Puget Sound waters.

Bloomington, Ill.-Anhydrous ammonia users are being reminded to pay strict attention to rules of safety after a Greene County farmer was hospitalized due to an ammonia incident that nearly took his life. He was driving his tractor and pulling two 2,000-gallon tanks through a field near Carrollton on April 11 when fumes started spreading his way. Apparently the fumes escaped when one of the tractor’s tires ran over a hose. The farmer’s son and nephew quickly got him out of the area and to the hospital. The two rescuers also needed treatment. “When you consider how many ammonia connections are made from the beginning point at the ammonia terminal where cargo tanks are loaded to the final application of the product from nurse tanks, there is potential for release if hose connections are not made properly and carefully each time,” cautioned Kevin Runkle, manager of regulatory services for the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Assn. (IFCA). Temperature changes, too, can lead to leaks because of pressure shifts within tanks. “If you fill a nurse tank up in the morning when it’s in the 50s, and then it gets to be 80 to 85 in the afternoon, that causes the pressure to increase, which is why it’s so important to not fill tanks beyond 85 degrees,” Runkle advised. The IFCA and the Illinois Department of Agriculture last year teamed up to create a 12-minute video outlining safety measures associated with anhydrous ammonia. Suggestions include not driving more than 25 mph while towing nurse tanks, not having more than three connected vehicles carrying the tanks, and ensuring that a safety chain is in place. “It’s a continuing educational process with anybody, whether it’s [agriculture] retailers or farmers,” Runkle said. Anhydrous ammonia is also a key ingredient in making methamphetamine. Although new laws to stem the sale of over-the-counter pseudophedrine have helped, the theft of anhydrous to make the illegal drug is still a major cause of ammonia releases in Illinois, Runkle said.

Boston-Converted Organics, which converts food wastes into fertilizer with a proprietary thermal process, has settled a suit that threatened to shut down its plant in Woodbridge, N.J. The suit was filed in Middlesex County Superior Court on May 19, 2009, by Lefcourt Associates Ltd., which owns property adjoining the plant location. The suit claims a private and public nuisance was being caused by odors resulting from the facility’s operations. But Lefcourt, which sought compensatory and punitive damages, apparently wasn’t the only party concerned about the situation. According to Converted Organics spokeswoman Kaitlyn Siner, “We’ve attributed the potential cause of the odor emissions to be due to the use of International Bio Recovery digester tanks installed in the plant. We switched to California Liquid Fertilizer digesters, which is technology we use at our Gonzales, Calif., facility. This brought about a significant decrease in odor levels.” The company also hired two odor control consultants to assist with the corrective process, and it implemented new operational procedures that were recommended by the consultants. “Since then,” Siner noted, “we have not experienced any significant issues, and believe that the suit dismissal is evidence of this. We also took production down from full capacity while investigating to ensure that the potential for odor nuisance was reduced and took all appropriate measures to resolve the issue. Had this matter not been resolved, we would have faced the potential for our operations to be either interrupted or terminated.”

Washington-The Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) and 22 national and state agribusiness groups sent a letter on April 16 to the Senate Finance Committee calling for permanent repeal of the estate tax. ARA said that if Congress fails to act before Jan. 1, 2011, the law would be reinstated at a $1 million exemption and top rate of 55 percent. “With the definition of ‘estates’ encompassing both liquid and illiquid assets, the ‘land rich’ agriculture industry is severely disadvantaged, with families being forced to sell assets in order to pay the estate tax,” ARA said. In the letter to Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the organizations said a full repeal of the tax would be in agriculture’s best interest, but acknowledged, “the current financial situation makes that difficult to accomplish.” In the absence of a repeal, the organizations urged Congress to permanently raise the exemption to $5 million per person and reduce the top rate to 35 percent. “It is also imperative that the exemption be indexed to inflation, provide for spousal transfers and include the stepped-up basis,” the letter said. In a press release, ARA said permanent estate tax relief is “crucial to ensure America’s agribusinesses around the nation are able to make sound business decisions on financial planning for the future, while making certain the family business can be passed on to future generations.”