Officials of the Ireco Inc. explosives plant west of Utah Lake say they will not rebuild the production facility destroyed in an explosion last month.
Ireco's 1-A building, located about 10 miles southwest of Lehi on U-68, was destroyed when 40 pounds of explosive emulsion detonated at about 4:30 a.m. Sept. 28 and caused another 2,000 pounds of nearby explosives to ignite. Investigators ruled a hydraulic valve on a blender stuck open and caused the mixture to overheat. Residents throughout Utah County were awakened by the blast.Jay Anderson, Ireco vice president, said company workers are removing debris from the lake spewed there by the explosion. Workers also are demolishing the remains of the production building and a nearby warehouse. The company will continue to use specially designed storage facilities on the site to warehouse products used in mining.
"We have no plans to rebuild that plant," Anderson said.
County planning officials said they were not aware explosives were being manufactured at Site A because the company did not have a business license for the facility. Ireco has a license only for Site B, its main facility about a mile north of Site A. County fire officials would have inspected the Site A building had the company applied for a license.
"It was our understanding that no manufacturing was going on there," said Jeff Mendenhall, county planning director.
Anderson said Ireco believed its license encompassed its entire Lehi operation, even though the two sites are more than a mile apart. It's common in the explosives industry for buildings to be separated by a large distance. Company officials have since applied for a license for Site A and a demolition permit.
"We were not trying to fool anyone," Anderson said. "There's no advantage to us not having a license."
State and federal environmental officials toured Site A just months before the explosion and were aware explosives were being manufactured there, Anderson said.
"They knew we were operating in that facility," he said.
Had Ireco applied for a license and had the facility met all the zoning requirements and fire codes, it's likely the county would have issued a license for Site A, Mendenhall said. It's unlikely that an inspection of the facility by county officials would have prevented the explosion.
Reports that the blast destroyed sections of U-68 are false, Anderson said. Also, the company has received no claims for damage caused by the blast.
"Some of the reports make it sound like we're publicly irresponsible," Anderson said. "We're very responsible and we're doing everything we can to clean up the area."
Utah County is considering changing its zoning ordinances so no new explosives plants could be built. Nine explosive manufacturers currently operate in the county.