Emergency and plant personnel worked through the night at a local farm input location to empty a nearly full 12,000-gallon anhydrous ammonia tank damaged by a tornado or microburst that swept through Illinois on Monday, June 21. The emergency occurred at Hintzche Fertilizer, Minooka, Ill., when the storm came through the Hintzche property, damaging roofs, blowing down a radio tower, knocking down trees, shutting off the power, and toppling an empty fertilizer tank onto the ammonia tank.
A total of 15 area agencies on the scene from Minooka, Channahon, Troy, Morris, Joliet, Coal City, Elwood, Wilmington, and Plainfield joined Hintzche personnel to transfer nearly 10,000 gallons of ammonia from the damaged tank to permit removal from the scene. As a precautionary measure, all homes within a one-mile radius of the plant were evacuated, according to the Kendall County Sheriff’s office. Some highway routes were also closed during the emergency.
“We did have either a tornado or a microburst, which was evidenced by some pretty heavy wind damage in the local area,” Hintzche President Dave Hintzsche told Green Markets. “It toppled over a 30,000 gallon upright empty storage tank, which was sort of lifted out of the dike and landed on top of the ammonia tank.”
Hintzche said there was a release of some product after the storm. “But our people were notified about 10:30 p.m., and with local authorities got the area secured. The tank then was emptied in the morning, which turned things into sort of a non-event.”
Hintzche said there were no injuries or environmental damage. “We actually converted the ammonia into aqueous ammonia and transported it to another of our facilities for storage,” he reported, adding that the tank was 70 to 80 percent full at the time.