The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality also investigated a complaint about the lingering smell of ammonia around the plant the same year.

CNN: Criminal probe started into Texas fertilizer plant blast

Since 1999 the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has charged the company with a number of violations, including releasing too much ammonia from its processing plant into a Chesapeake Bay tributary.

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That same year, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality investigated a complaint that the area around the plant smelled of ammonia.

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Dale is developing a method to break these bonds by treating plant matter with ammonia at 200 degrees Fahrenheit under 250 pounds of pressure for five minutes.

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The newspaper said it had seen documents in which the plant said it stored large amounts of anhydrous ammonia, but the worst scenario envisaged was a release of ammonia gas that would harm no-one.

BBC: Texas Waco fertiliser plant blast causes many casualties

Some firefighters at the scene of a fertilizer plant explosion in Texas were concerned Wednesday night about anhydrous ammonia.

CNN: Explosion hits fertilizer plant north of Waco, Texas

Damage at a chemical plant was also reported, with hundreds of people buried and tonnes of poisonous liquid ammonia released.

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