Agra Enterprises: Fact Sheet for Paul Johnson, Plant Manager

In addition to the following, the witness should also be given the background

information contained in the problem itself. The witness should make up any other

facts that are not inconsistent with these, or claim lack of knowledge.

About you:

Johnson has been plant manager at the plant since June 2005, when the

former plant manager, Fred Evans, died of a heart attack. Fred Evans had been the

manager since the facility was built and began operations in October 2002.

Johnson was transferred from another Agra plant in Buffalo, New York, where he

had worked in various lower-level positions since he graduated from high school in

1981.

The facility operations:

This facility receives bulk agricultural chemicals from several different

chemical companies and re-packages them for sale to the consumer. After Agra

re-packages the products, they sell them to area wholesalers and retailers. The

products include pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides used on fruits, vegetables,

and grain crops.

The entire operation employs about 50 full-time workers including office

staff and warehouse and loading dock workers. Gross sales of agricultural

products have been in the range of $10 million for the past five years. Net income

has been in the range of $1 million per year.

Agra Enterprises is a wholly owned subsidiary of Megra, Inc., a

multinational corporation located in New Jersey listed on the New York Stock

Exchange. The "corporate veil" has been maintained: only three of the

subsidiary's seven board members are also on the parent's board; only one of the

three corporate officers is the same. The subsidiary keeps its own balance sheet

and is responsible for its own profits and losses. It is insured by a Corporate

General Liability policy, and maintains a fund of $500,000 for uninsured liabilities.

Trucks unload chemicals in large 300-lb. containers directly into the

repackaging building, where they are stored until being emptied into bins which

feed into the packaging machines. The re-packaged product, in bags or plastic

containers, is then stored in the warehouse building before being shipped out by

truck or train.

The Chemicals:

Plant inventory records indicate that the facility had the following maximum

quantities on hand during each of the last four years of the following chemicals:

Azinphos-methyl: 6000 lbs. (this chemical contains 50% inert ingredients;

thus, Agra has a good argument that there were really only 3000 pounds of pure

azinphos-methyl on hand). The azinphos is in powder form and has a particle size

of over 100 microns.

Maneb: 15,000 lbs. in pure, powdered form.

In June of 2006, you began receiving a new product, ammonium nitrate. By

September 2006, you had approximately 20,000 pounds of this product on hand.

However, due to the dangers of the product and low sales, it was phased out by the

end of 2006 and there were no supplies of it present during the fire.

The majority of these quantities are in the form of the chemicals already

bagged up and waiting to be shipped out. Moreover, once they are bagged up, the

bags are moved to the warehouse building and are not stored in the repackaging

building which caught fire. Although they don't have exact records on this,

Johnson estimates that it would be rare to have more than one-third of these

quantities in the form of bulk unpackaged chemicals sitting around the repackaging

building waiting to be packaged.

Both of these chemicals have Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and you

are required by OSHA to have them on hand at the facility. The MSDS for each

have not changed since 1998. There were peaks and valleys in your inventory.

Inventory would peak in winter just before the growing season started. The types

of chemicals on hand at the plant have been pretty stable, haven’t really changed

much the past ten years, except for the ammonium nitrate mentioned above.

EPCRA Compliance:

Evans, the previous plant manager, complied with EPCRA (he filed the

MSDS forms initially and filed inventory reports every year); when Johnson came

in, however, compliance stopped. Johnson's explanation is that he had no

knowledge of EPCRA and the office staff at the plant apparently let this slip. He

was Assistant Plant Manager at Buffalo and never had anything to do with

environmental compliance until he came to Missouri.

Johnson is adamant that the company's "technical" violation of EPCRA had

nothing to do with the fire or the deaths of the firefighters. The fire department

made an annual inspection of the facility and Johnson had personally walked

through the plant with the local fire chief, pointing out various potential hazards, so

the fact that there was no paperwork on file is merely a technicality. The

firefighters all wore protective clothing and gas masks, and they immediately

evacuated the plant and the area around the plant, illustrating that they were aware

of the potential dangers from of the chemicals. Johnson also thinks it is ludicrous

to blame them for failing to file inventory documents with the LEPC. Their

previous LEPC filings should have made the LEPC aware of what was at the plant

-- there had been only a few minor changes or additions since their last filing. He

does not remember receiving the LEPC reminder letter and wouldn't have known

what it referred to if he had. He thinks they should have been more specific and

followed up this letter.

He personally called 911 when he got word that there was a fire in the plant.

The 911 dispatcher did not inform him that he needed to contact anyone else and

he assumed that the fire department would take it from there and notify all

necessary emergency personnel. Again, there was no harm here -- even though he

didn't notify the LEPC they wouldn't have done anything differently than was

already done here.

Another subsidiary of Megra, Inc., located in Pennsylvania, was penalized

by EPA in 2006 for failure to file inventory forms under §312. It paid a fine of

$50,000 in a negotiated settlement. Johnson did not hear of this until after the fire

at his plant. He had not received any warnings or other information on EPCRA

from the parent corporation. The only other environmental problem Megra, Inc.

has had was a RCRA violation in 2003 at a plant in New Jersey. This was a

disposal violation and Megra was fined $85,000. Agra itself has never had an

environmental problem or paid a penalty. It disposes of any pesticide waste using

an environmental contractor who takes the waste, properly manifested, to a RCRA

disposal facility.

The Agra facility is located approximately ½ mile from the nearest

residential area in Paradise, Missouri. Immediately to the north and east are

cornfields for an appreciable distance. Directly to the south, approximately 1/4

mile away from the repackaging building, is a grain elevator. To the west is a

highway, across which are some office buildings. At the time of the fire, the wind

was blowing to the northeast. There are some scattered farmhouses that direction.

Note that some of the nearby residents were treated for headaches and nausea and

there is evidence that azinphos was found in fumes drifting off the site to the

northeast.

SEP information: The company plans to re-build the facility as soon as

possible. The company is considering putting in a ventilation system that would

increase the cost of the building by $100,000, but which might help prevent

explosions such as this one. The ventilation system is not required by federal or

state law.