By Doug Rich

The spring fertilization season has begun and along with it more opportunities for anhydrous ammonia to be stolen.

Anhydrous ammonia is a low cost form of nitrogen fertilizer that farmers depend on every year to produce their crops and an ingredient used in the production of methamphetamine. To slow down the theft of anhydrous ammonia from nurse and storage tanks, Shawnee County, Kan., started a Tank Lock Pilot Project in March. Dean Davis, K-State Extension Agricultural Agent in Shawnee County, says their goal is to put locks on every anhydrous tank in the county.

Shawnee County has been one of the areas in the state with a meth problem. In 2000, Shawnee County recorded more meth lab seizures than any county in the state. "Meth labs are not as bad as they were five years a go, but they still are a problem in Shawnee County," says Sgt. Martha Lutz, Public Information officer with the Shawnee County Sheriff's Department. "It is hard to track down anhydrous ammonia theft, but we do feel that anhydrous is stolen frequently from farmers tanks out in the field. This is why our department got involved with the lock project."

"We started out with tamper tags several years ago," says Dean Davis. "All that did was tell us if the tank had been tampered with so we could call the Sheriff." The Shawnee Terminal Elevator (STE) as well as several farmers in the county have reported the theft of anhydrous ammonia. In October 2004 Shawnee County Extension applied for an $18,600 grant to fund their tank lock pilot project. They received the grant this spring and in March began holding informational meetings to explain the project to farmers in the county.

Dean Davis says there are 140 anhydrous ammonia tanks in Shawnee County and their goal is to put a lock on every one of them over the next few months. Thanks to the grant the locks will be provided at no cost to the farmers who sign up for the project. Financial support for the project was provided by the Topeka Community Foundation, the Shawnee County Sheriff's Drug Forfeiture Fund, and the Kansas Criminal Coordination Council. As of March 10 they had received orders for 70 locks.

STE Ag Service at the Shawnee Terminal Elevator is the biggest supplier of anhydrous ammonia nurse tanks in the county and has the largest number of tanks. Danny Akin says they have 63 tanks. Within the last month they have had anhydrous ammonia stolen from their Rossville site. Akin says the thieves usually hit the nurse tanks and not the larger storage units. "It is not the value of the product they steal, but the chance that they may leave a valve open and what that might do," says Akin. Thieves want to get in and get out quickly so they normally only take about a gallon of product from the tanks.

Anhydrous ammonia is a key ingredient in the "Nazi" method of manufacturing methamphetamine. "The Kansas Bureau of Investigation estimates that about 85 percent of all meth labs in Kansas use the Nazi method and 99 percent of all labs in Shawnee County are Nazi labs," says Cristi Cain, state coordinator for the Kansas Methamphetamine Prevention Project. "The locks will make the ingredients much less accessible." Two other ingredients used in the Nazi method are lithium metal removed from batteries and ephedrine extracted from cold tablets. "Meth labs have been a significant problem over the past few years."

The anti-tamper locks are manufactured by Castell Interlocks Inc., from Erlanger, Ky. The heavy duty locks are made of hardened steel and permanently mounted on the nurse tank withdrawal valve. Operation of the valve to release anhydrous ammonia is only permitted by inserting the correct key tool allowing the valve to be operated. The key tools can be individually coded so that the key from one farm will not fit the locks on any other farm. Once the valve is closed the key tool is removed. "We wanted a lock that was sturdy, durable, that would do the job, but that was easy for farmers and ranchers to use," says Davis.

"We are confident that once we get these locks installed in Shawnee County that it will cut those thefts way down," says Sgt. Lutz. Davis hopes to have locks on every tank in Shawnee County by July 1. At that point the project will be evaluated and the results shared with all counties in Kansas. "We will do an evaluation of the Tank Lock Project and one thing we will really look at is the increase of anhydrous ammonia theft in surrounding counties." Cain says they hope to have the evaluation completed by this time next spring.

Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304 or by e-mail at Richhpj@aol.com

Date: 3/24/05