The head of the Iowa Fertilizer company says that they’re on track to finish their plant in Wever by the end of this year.
Shawn Rana appeared on the KBUR Talk Show last week, telling hosts Steve Hexom and Rob Sussman the plant is currently about 85% and has surpassed job creation expectations so far.
“We promised the state 165 full time positions. We’re at 185 already,” Rana told KBUR. “We’re looking to fill a few more, but we’re hitting our peak.” And that’s just for after the plant is built. Right now, 2,900 workers are constructing the plant in Weaver, working around the clock on the state-of-the art production facility that will produce Nitrogen enriched fertilizer–the first one built in the United States in 25 years.
Of course, concerns persist about the overall safety of the plant, especially in the wake of 2013’s fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas that killed 15 people and injured more than 160.
“First and foremost, we’re not producing the product they were producing at the plant in Texas,” said Rana, “Equally as important: ours is a state of the art facility. Safety is always number one. Our workers live in this area…we’ve engineered this with safety built in.”
Rana says that transition plans are already in place to bring the facility up to operational capacity late this year. Iowa Fertilizer started constructing the $1.8 billion plant in March of 2013.
