{"id":733312,"date":"2020-12-14T07:01:58","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T12:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecompliancecenter.com\/ca\/?p=733312"},"modified":"2025-09-08T00:52:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:52:22","slug":"new-requirements-for-transporting-anhydrous-ammonia-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecompliancecenter.com\/ca\/help-center\/articles\/new-requirements-for-transporting-anhydrous-ammonia-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"New Requirements for Transporting Anhydrous Ammonia in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Despite the burden that the COVID pandemic has placed on regulators, more changes and updates are occurring to transportation regulations to ensure that dangerous goods can be transported without any unnecessary risk to the public. One that has recently been made in Canada involves the transportation of <\/span>anhydrous ammonia<\/span><\/a> by rail in what are called \u201cnurse tanks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What is a nurse tank? They\u2019re bulk containers used to transport products such as liquid anhydrous ammonia, usually by farmers for agricultural purposes. According to <\/span>one source<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[T]<\/span>anks are most often either 1,000 or 1,500 gallons in size although 2000 gallon nurse tanks may be seen. A full 1,000 gallon tank will weigh 7,500 pounds and a full 1,500 gallon tank will weigh about 10,600 pounds\u2026. All valves and gauges will be located on the top of the nurse tank and toward the front except for the pressure relief valve. The valves and gauges will be protected by a roll cage or some other means. A hydrostatic relief valve will be present anywhere in the plumbing system where ammonia liquid or vapor is trapped and needs to be safely removed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Transport Canada<\/span><\/a> explains further that farmers \u201ccan apply anhydrous ammonia to their fields using nurse wagons, pulled behind a tractor. Some of these nurse wagons consist of multiple inter-connected tanks, while newer wagons consist of larger single tank installed on a wagon. These are all considered as nurse tanks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As bulk containers, nurse tanks for dangerous goods in Canada are subject to standards from the Canadian Standards Board (CSA). These standards, CSA B620 and CSA B622 have been updated in 2020 to reintroduce a specific tank type, TC 51, as the main type of nurse tank to be used in agricultural service. These tanks had not been included in the previous edition of CSA B620, published in 2014 since they were \u201cbelieved not to be needed.\u201d However, the CSA B620 Technical Committee revisited the issue and added the TC 51 specification tank back for 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

TC51 tanks<\/span><\/a> are described by Transport Canada as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n