From an updated article.
Union Pacific also ruled out the possibility of theft, saying ‘we do not believe there is any criminal or malicious activity involved.’
The product is transported in hopper cars, and according to Union Pacific only part of the rail car was carrying the 60,000 pounds (30 tons) of pellets.
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer costs around $600 per ton, according to New Mexico State University, so the missing shipment would have been worth something in the region of $18,000.
Stan Blake, a former Wyoming state lawmaker and retired train conductor, told Cowboy State Daily it wouldn’t be hard to drain one of the hopper cars of its load of the pellets.
The cars have two or three sections, Blake said, and there’s a gate at the bottom of them. ‘You can use up a big bar and open that gate and it’ll pour out,’ he told the outlet.
Union Pacific, which operated the train carrying the explosive chemicals, said if the pellets had leaked from the train it would be harmless. Pictured is a Union Pacific train hauling bulk grain through Kansas© Provided by Daily Mail
He also suggested that its possible the pellets never got on the train in the first place, since with a mobile conveyor belt, the chemical can be carried from the open gate into a truck.
He said sometimes cars would be registered as carrying loads, but they’d be empty, and vice versa.
He said sometimes when cars were joined, they could slam together and some would spill out. He told the outlet he’s known people to collect it in plastic bags and put it on their lawn.
‘It’s great fertilizer,’ he said.
Ammonium nitrate is used as both a fertilizer and in explosives. A large amount of the material exploded in the Port of Beirut in August 2020 killing 281 people and injuring around 7,000.