Why Is a Local Cement Plant Storing 45 Tons of Ammonium Nitrate in its Limestone Quarry?

According to today's Dallas Morning News, the Holcim cement plant in Midlothian is storing 45 tons of ammonium nitrate, the same substance that authorities believe caused the West blast, in its limestone quarry. Apparently no DMN reporter asked what a cement plant was doing with so much "fertilizer" on its premises. Using it as another weird "additive?" Storing it for some farmer friends? Why Holcim and not TXI or Ash Grove?  Plus the DMN reporters apparently never even visited the site and described the area as void of houses and schools. In fact, Downwidners' founder Sue Pope and others live just north of the Holcim quarry – close enough for them to be affected by the blasts of rock when the cement plant mines the limestone in that same quarry. And there are at least two schools within a mile of the place.

We've got an inquiry pending with Holcim representatives asking about the presence of the chemical on site. If we get an answer we'll let you know. Meanwhile, we're left to wonder why it took a disaster in West to bring this strange development to light.