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About 50 new ammonia facilities are currently being proposed across the United States, mostly in Louisiana and Texas, but also in Pennsylvania. If you think of ammonia as a cleaning product, you’re not alone, and also you may be wondering why so much ammonia is needed.
The new facilities aren’t to make household cleaners. Ammonia is used for a number of applications and products ranging from shipping fuel to explosives. But mostly, it’s used to make fertilizer. Farmers are currently experiencing fertilizer supply chain issues, so the Department of Agriculture is pushing for expanding ammonia facilities to boost production domestically. Ammonia manufactured at this scale is a petrochemical derived from fossil fuels. If these proposed projects get approved, they could quadruple ammonia production in the U.S., contribute to air pollution, increase climate warming, and harm the health of the communities they’re slated for. If an ammonia facility is being considered near you, here’s what you need to know.
How ammonia is made
Ammonia is typically made from methane, water, and air. It’s an energy-intensive process that produces almost 2% of global carbon dioxide, a climate-heating greenhouse gas. To make ammonia, hydrogen is combined with nitrogen from the air under very high temperatures and pressures.
When considering the possible dangers of ammonia, it’s important to factor in its total footprint, including what’s harmful about its various components. Most ammonia today is made using hydrogen produced from methane, so its impacts include pollution from methane extraction, processing, and transportation. Methane is considered the second-largest driver of global warming.
Ammonia facilities and potential hazards
Every step of the process of making ammonia involves potential safety hazards. Breathing in even low levels of ammonia over time can cause respiratory damage. Once airborne, ammonia becomes fine particulate matter, which can cause negative health impacts such as stroke, heart disease, and cancer.
At times, ammonia facilities burn off or flare chemicals, creating especially high levels of air pollution. Ammonia is corrosive and also reacts with many other substances to produce more air pollution: oxidizers, acids, halogens (including chlorine bleach), and some heavy metals.
Leaks are another potential hazard with ammonia production, putting local communities at risk of chemical disasters. If ammonia leaks during transportation on trucks or trains, it can form low clouds that burn lungs when inhaled. In 2025, one truck carrying ammonia in Oklahoma leaked, injuring 75 people, 11 critically. Explosions are also a concern at existing ammonia facilities—one at a plant in Mississippi forced nearby residents to evacuate.
Health concerns and ammonia facilities
Ammonia facilities can impact anyone, but especially vulnerable community members and workers, including children, older adults, and people with underlying health conditions like asthma. Air pollution is a major health concern, but there are others too. Many health harms of ammonia exposure involve direct contact.
Irritation: Ammonia can irritate skin, eyes, respiratory and digestive tracts, and mouths. How much irritation depends on the amount of exposure—just smelling it can make eyes water but walking into a cloud can cause burns.
Smell: Ammonia stinks. The CDC describes its strong smell as being similar to rotting fish. Others liken the sharp, almost stinging odor to cat urine or stale sweat. However you describe it, ammonia facility workers and communities living nearby bear the brunt of the unrelenting stench. Constant exposure to a horrific scent can lead to headaches, nausea, dizziness, and respiratory irritation, stress, and anxiety.
Lights: Industrial ammonia facilities can cause light pollution if they require 24/7 exterior security lighting and tall flare stacks. This is especially of concern for proposed facilities in otherwise rural areas. Light pollution can disrupt sleep and harm wildlife. Noise is also an issue.
Water: Ammonia production can harm drinking water through spills, wastewater discharges, and the air. Nitrogen in ammonia fertilizer, when it runs off into rivers and streams, can feed algae blooms and create dead zones in waterways, a concern for local fishers.
Environmental justice and ammonia facilities
Many of the current proposed ammonia facilities are being planned for or next to majority Black and Latino communities, including Louisiana's Cancer Alley. Some of these low-income areas and communities of color are already contending with elevated air pollution and related health issues from other existing chemical facilities. New ammonia facilities will add to the disproportionate burden these communities shoulder.
Get involved
No community should be subjected to a new ammonia facility that sacrifices human health, risks safety, and causes damage to land and water. If one is being planned near you, get in touch with local elected officials about what you might be able to do, including advocating for strong facility regulations.
Join community groups to demand that air emissions, wastewater management, and accident prevention plans be put in place to ensure that nearby residents, schools, and natural resources are as protected as possible.
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Released: August 2026