The Texas fertilizer plant explosion raises safety concerns over the many potentially combustible chemical industries closer to home.

A future ammonia plant to be built on the West Bank is now coming under fire

The fertilizer plant explosion in Central Texas blew up just hours after Governor Bobby Jindal announced his support to build the 850 million dollar ammonia plant in Waggaman.

Jefferson Parish Councilman Mark Spears expressed his safety concern, pushing for the parish to seek out more feedback from neighbors.

Spears wrote in an email, “As elected leaders we must ensure that the safety of our residents is the primary focus before this plant is allowed to proceed to construction.”

“It`s an ammonia production facility. Not a fertilizer production facility,” says Jefferson Parish President John Young who assures safety records for the company building the ammonia production plant, Dyno Nobel , are very good, “It`s going to be set up with the highest safety standards. They have gone around the world studying the technology and safety standards to build a first class, world class facility that other companies will use as a model.”

Young is confident Louisiana chemical industries will learn valuable safety lessons once the dust settles at the Texas fertilizer plant, “We will be able to utilize those lessons with respect to Dyno Nobel . It`s a tragedy what happened in Texas.  But we`re going to make sure at the local level, state level and at the federal level that we`re not going to impose any undue risk on our citizens.”

The ammonia plant is expected to create 750 jobs and generate tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue to be operational in 2016.