DEFEATED BILL ADDRESSED AMMONIA TANK CRIMES

JACKSON - Lawmakers in 2002 missed a chance to pass a bill that would have
strengthened penalties for breaking, cutting or damaging the valve or
locking mechanism of an anhydrous ammonia tank.

The measure would have made such crimes felonies punishable by jail terms
of up to 60 years.

Sponsored by Sens. Glenn Hamilton, R-Maben, and Joe Stogner, R-Sandy Hook,
the bill passed the state Senate and was sent to House Judiciary Committee A.

It died there in the final days of last year's regular legislative session.

It failed "probably because no one just really got behind it and promoted
it over there," Hamilton said Sunday.

Judiciary A Chairman Percy Watson, D-Hattiesburg, said he didn't remember
the bill.

But he said the committee usually consults the Mississippi Bureau of
Narcotics on drug-related legislation.

"At the time, it might not have been a high-priority issue for them," he
said of securing ammonia tanks.

MBN officials could not be reached for comment.

Hamilton said the apparent break-in and subsequent leak at the plant on
Seaway Road dramatizes the need for more secure ammonia tanks.

Stiffening penalties for tampering with them would be a good place to
start, he said.

Hamilton said that, absent better security, some are "extremely concerned
that the federal government is going to come in and make it illegal even to
have" ammonium on farms and industrial sites.

"It might come to a point when the government would just say it's not even
worth the risk of having" ammonia, Hamilton said.

It's too late to introduce a bill that would beef up penalties for
tampering with ammonia tanks during this year's legislative session.

But Hamilton said he hopes a future Legislature will take up the issue.

"We've got to do something about this," he said.