West, Texas
The explosion at the fertilizer plant in West, Texas didn’t get the headlines that it deserved due to the Boston Marathon bombings. Now that the Boston situation has calmed down a bit, time to look at West, Texas.
It certainly was a nasty situation, but should it have ever happened? Texas has billed itself as a place that is business friendly where the government will stay out of the way. Perhaps, the government stayed too far out of the way.
Two things that government is useful is insuring a safe working environment. The questions that keep coming to my mind are:
1. Why wasn’t the plant inspected for safety violations? According to the news, the last time the place was inspected was 1985.
2. Zoning. I don’t know whether the schools or the plant came first, but why were they allowed to be so close?
Here is the satellite image before and after the explosion. Note how close the homes and schools are to the plant site. This is the sort of thing that good zoning practices should prevent. Luckily, the schools weren’t in session. Otherwise, fatality counts might have been a lot higher.
And one more thing, Gov. Rick Perry is asking the federal government for disaster aid. Whatever happened to his plans to secede from the union? Idiot.
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Location:San Pedro, CA
calherewecome 
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