EPA WARNS OF AMMONIA DANGERS -- THE INCREASED THEFT AND MISHANDLING OF
anhydrous ammonia by illicit drugmakers prompts an unusual warning to
farmers and others to safeguard their tanks.

WASHINGTON-- Illicit drugmakers are sneaking onto U.S. farms and into
co-op elevators and stealing anhydrous ammonia, a common chemical
fertilizer that can also be used to produce illegal methamphetamine.
Their sloppy handling of the chemical is endangering the public, the
Environmental Protection Agency warned Tuesday.

In an unusual chemical safety alert, the EPA warned anhydrous ammonia
users to beef up security because theft-triggered chemical accidents
are soaring. The corrosive chemical can be fatal when inhaled and can
cause severe burns to the skin even in small amounts.

"You'd be hard-pressed to find a co-op that hasn't been hit at least
once," said Joe Schauf, manager of the Andale co-op at Furley. "You
come to work and see the hoses on the tanks down and you know they've
been there. You worry all the time about somebody being hurt."

Anhydrous ammonia is a gas in its natural state. It is stored under
high pressure that keeps the liquid cooled to sub-zero temperatures.
When exposed to air, it rapidly returns to a gas.

Thieves try to capture the liquid in insulated coolers or bottles or
in propane tanks like those used on barbecue grills.

If they can fill up a cooler and get the lid on fast enough, the
liquid will warm slowly enough that it can be transported to the lab
and used, said Kirk Thompson, a Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent
who works to clean up methamphetamine labs.

But if thieves get spooked, something that apparently happened three
weeks ago at a Pleasant Hill, Mo., bulk storage tank, they flee and
may leave the valve open, allowing the entire tank to spew its
contents into the air.

In the Missouri incident, hundreds of gallons of the chemical escaped,
forming a toxic cloud and forcing firefighters to evacuate 300 people
in the middle of the night.

Even small amounts of leftovers discarded along a roadway -- or simply
left at the scene -- can be a hazard to anyone who might accidentally
pick up a container or open a cooler or to law enforcement agents
trying to clean up a scene.

And that's precisely what prompted the EPA to act.

"People from the general public are being injured," said EPA chemical
emergency senior specialist Mark Smith, who authored the agency alert.
"Emergency responders are being injured. The public is being evacuated
because of some of these releases."

The EPA recommends that farmers and other anhydrous ammonia users put
locks on valves and erect fencing around tanks if possible. But
beefing up security isn't as easy as it might sound, Schauf said.

Co-ops often store anhydrous ammonia in remote locations away from
populated areas in an effort to minimize the danger from an accidental
spill. That very effort plays into the hands of thieves who can raid
the tanks with less risk of detection.

Some co-ops have tried putting locks on the valves of their anhydrous
tanks. And they've had expensive, high-pressure hoses cut by thieves
trying to get to the product.

Others have put up chain link fences only to find that thieves have
hooked onto them with log chains and pulled the gates down.

Typically the thieves don't need much anhydrous -- four or five pounds
easily serves their needs. If they don't leave behind any sign of
their thievery, it would be unlikely that co-op mangers would even
notice such a small quantity missing.

But getting it out of the storage tank and into a smaller container is
no easy task.

"It's virtually impossible to get it into a smaller container by just
opening a valve," said Ted Lomas, crop production specialist at the
Right Co-op in Wright.

The drugmakers often fail to realize how dangerous and corrosive the
chemical is, experts said. In many of the containers they use, the
chemical quickly eats its way through and begins to leak into the air.

"Every week we probably handle between 30 and 50 pressure cylinders
that have been stolen and improperly used to store anhydrous ammonia,"
said Ken Teeter, chief of emergency response at the Missouri
Department of Natural Resources.

It was that concern, and the desire to give Kansas law enforcement
officers some "teeth" that prompted the Kansas Legislature to make
possession of anhydrous in an unapproved container a felony. That law,
passed in the 1999 session, went into effect last fall.