The Shadow Of Chemical Valley

As a child, I grew intimately familiar with the union hall job list. Weeks of unemployment were daily punctuated by Dad calling the number to see whether any new jobs were available. Thousands of tradespeople in our city did the same for their union. If a job came up for ten people, the top ten on the list could take it or move to the bottom of the list. When the job finished, whether it was a year, a month, or a week, they went back to the bottom of the list. Workers unwilling or unable to travel might spend months or years on the list when construction slowed down. In Sarnia, Ontario, generations of workers have lived and died under this system.

Sarnia has been growing and dying in cycles for a hundred years. The discovery of oil in Lambton County in the 1850s led to a thriving petrochemical industry that defined the region for over a century. But oil reserves never last, markets shift, and companies rise and fall. On the outskirts of Sarnia along the beautiful St. Clair River, a vast industrial sprawl known as “Chemical Valley” has grown, withered, and been reborn many times over.

Petro-Chemical Industry of Sarnia’s Chemical Valley, Ontario, Canada, June 2012, P199, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The workers who sustain the cycle also suffer from it. They learn a trade, raise a family, benefit during booms, scrape through busts, contract illnesses or workplace injuries, and pass away. Their children often follow the same paths. When my divergent course led me to become a historian, I became curious about “what if” scenarios that might have played out had I followed those paths. As I looked deeper into Sarnia’s past and present, I began to wonder: what motivates these workers to continue building a world that seems intent on killing them and their kin?

As a child, I visited the Oil Heritage Museum of Canada and learned about the discovery of oil in Lambton County in the 1850s. In the oil fields stood tall drilling derricks and mechanical “nodding donkey” pumpjacks, remnants of an oil boom that sparked Sarnia’s main industry. We learned about “hard oilers” who built the infrastructure needed to drill, pump, store, refine, and transport oil to the rest of the world.¹ Early profits led to the formation of oil companies like Home Oil, Canadian Oil, and Imperial Oil (later bought by Standard Oil). By 1900, the oil industry in Lambton County had moved to Sarnia, conveniently located halfway between Toronto and Chicago, only an hour north of Detroit, and offering a sheltered port for shipping oil and refined products via the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.²

Exploding a Torpedo in an Oil Well at Petrolia [Ont.], Photograph, 1886, Library and Archives Canada, http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=3193746&lang=eng.

Not until many years later did I make the connection between that history and my own experiences. My grandparents’ generation was the first to enter the skilled trades needed by the growing petrochemical industry. During the Second World War, shortages of natural rubber made production of synthetic rubber vital to the war effort and Sarnia had the oil, water, and infrastructure to support rapid development of a new industry. The Canadian government formed Polymer Corporation in 1942 and constructed facilities that are still in operation today.³ The resulting construction boom in Sarnia relied on skilled tradespeople: carpenters, pipe fitters, iron workers, welders, boilermakers, sheet metal fabricators, insulators, linesmen, electricians, process operators, and more.

Chemical Valley has grown to include other companies such as Shell Canada, Sunoco, Dow Chemical, Bayer, NOVA Chemicals, Cabot, and DuPont. Members of my family have worked at all these plants, helping build an industrial zone that has over 60 facilities producing a wide range of petrochemical products from gasoline to rubber for chewing gum.⁴

These days, over 5,000 people in Sarnia work in the trades or related occupations—nearly 15% of the workforce—second only to the sales and service industry.⁵ Tradespeople generally referred to as being in the construction industry or “working in the plants” are subject to two cycles of different periods that drive both employment and unemployment.

The first cycle involves new construction which offers years of steady employment when a new processing unit or refinery is built. New plants bring significant investment and rumors about potential projects spread like wildfire. But when construction wraps up and plants go online, most workers return to the union job lists to await the next project.

The second cycle is based on plant shutdowns for reconfiguration or maintenance. These occur more frequently than new construction but for only a few weeks at a time. Shutdowns offer increased hours and pay, as deadlines create overtime where workers might put in ten-hour days for six days a week and earn “time-and-a-half” or “double-time” for extra hours.

Increased income during growth or shut-down cycles boost Sarnia’s economy as workers are suddenly flush with cash. Residents spend over $4 million on recreation vehicles, watercraft, and ATVs each year. Forty-one percent of households earn over $100,000 a year.⁶ The city marinas boast 1.5 boats per 1000 residents, far above ownership rates in similar lakefront cities in Ontario.⁷ As the saying goes, Sarnians work hard and play hard.

Aerial View of the Blue Water Bridges, Taken from above Sarnia, ON, Looking West towards Port Huron, MI, July 2, 2007, Silverchemist, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Yet the downturn of the cycles can bring long periods of scarcity. Without careful long-term planning, months of unemployment deplete savings and cause tremendous stress. After working long hours during a shutdown, workers are suddenly aimless. Workers who can travel often seek work across the continent, leaving behind or relocating their families temporarily. Anyone who will not or cannot travel must wait for the next job or find alternative employment. Many people turn to substances to cope with the stress of long hours or no work.⁸ My paternal grandfather, a talented but troubled welder, died of alcohol poisoning at the age of 40, leaving behind a young widow and three children.

The cycle of boom and bust in Sarnia’s Chemical Valley exacts a heavy toll on the health of the workers, city, and region. The oil industry was notoriously dangerous from its early beginnings, but the long-term effects of petrochemical processing and related industries took decades to emerge. The mitigation of those health risks is an ongoing challenge.

Most of the health issues affecting workers in Sarnia do not arise from their daily work. Labor unions have been present in Sarnia since the 1930s, which has led to a concerted effort to improve working conditions through procedures and training that are mandated across the region.⁹ Workers follow guidelines and complete risk assessment forms that are recognized as both tedious and crucial in reducing job site injuries and fatalities.

Workers at the Polymer Corporation in 1943. L-R: Welder balances on top of a pipe during the construction of extraction towers; male welder wearing welding mask joins Y-shaped steam pipe; workmen assemble a coal pulverizing mill. Source: “Photographs and Posters from the Wartime Information Board Classification System,” Library and Archives Canada, 1939-1945, http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=206062&lang=eng.

However, many other health problems arise from exposure to environmental hazards. As early as the 1950s, the Ontario Ministry of Health was concerned about damage to lungs caused by asbestos in insulation manufacturing. A 1987 report found that rates of lung cancer and mesothelioma among workers at one of the insulation companies were six times greater than expected.¹⁰ One of my family members recalled laying in piles of asbestos insulation during work breaks—he later died from mesothelioma.

Another continuing environmental hazard, volatile organic compounds, continue to cause widespread health issues across the region. Workers and residents—including the Aamjiwnaang First Nations community—are frequently exposed to “toxic pollutants such as mercury, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, lead, particulate matter, and many other heavy metals, volatile organic carbons (VOCs), and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).”¹¹ Many of these pollutants are carcinogenic and have been linked to acute myeloid leukemia, which occurs in Sarnia at a rate 3 times higher than the national average.¹² A city-wide siren system alerts residents when an accidental discharge or release occurs, warning people to close their windows and shelter in place.

Benzine Unit, Imperial Oil Enterprises Ltd. In The Chemical Valley, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, 1965, Postcard, 1965, Southwestern Ontario Digital Archive, https://swoda.uwindsor.ca/node/3401.

Growing up, I never gave the possibility of leaving Sarnia any serious thought. Dad worked in other parts of Ontario for periods. We lived in a trailer park for a few weeks up north. We spent three months in Montana, learning about mining and ranching while Dad worked at a new silica plant. But we always came back.

The lure of work is strong. The cycle of boom and bust in Sarnia is sustained by continual reinvention. Downturns in one industry make way for new growth in another. Biodiesel power plants and solar farms replace refineries and oil fields. The stress of unemployment is forgotten with the influx of long hours and good paychecks. Future health issues are overshadowed by present success and enjoyment.

Surviving the brutal cycles of industry and health hazards requires resiliency that defines Sarnia’s culture. Many tradespeople take pride in their ability to work overtime for weeks, to provide for their families, and to beat the odds of cancer or other work-related diseases. Given the choice to attend university or trade school, many of my high school classmates chose the direct pipeline into high earnings, first homes, and new vehicles.

Working in the plants has become a tradition in families across the region. Second or third generation tradespeople continue to pass down values and skills to their children, despite the risks involved. My family has followed that path for 80 years, working as pipe fitters, insulators, welders, sheet metal fabricators, and electricians. They are the tradespeople of Sarnia who risk the hazards of the petrochemical industry, endure the cycles of prosperity and scarcity, and work hard to provide for their families. They live in the shadow of Chemical Valley, for better or worse.

1. “Black Gold: Canada’s Oil Heritage,” Lambton County Museums, September 14, 2020, https://www.lambtonmuseums.ca/en/oil-museum-of-canada/black-gold.aspx.
2. Deborah Welch and Michael Payne, “Petrolia,” in The Canadian Encyclopedia, July 23, 2024, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/petrolia.
3. Niko Block and Jean Elford, “Sarnia,” in The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2019, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sarnia.
4. “Petrochemical and Refining Complex,” Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership, accessed September 13, 2024, https://www.sarnialambton.on.ca/key-sectors/petrochemical-and-refined-petroleum; Tim Lougheed, “Chemical Valley Positions Itself as the Home of the Country’s Emerging Bioeconomy,” The Chemical Institute of Canada (blog), October 1, 2018, https://www.cheminst.ca/magazine/article/chemical-valley-positions-itself-as-the-home-of-the-countrys-emerging-bioeconomy/.
5. “Sarnia,” Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership, 2023, https://www.sarnialambton.on.ca/data-statistics/sarnia.
6. “Consumer Expenditures,” Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership, 2023, https://www.sarnialambton.on.ca/data-statistics/sarnia.
7. Vessel Registration Query System,” accessed September 1, 2024, https://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur/4/vrqs-srib/eng/vessel-registrations.
8. Lambton Public Health, “A Report on Substance Use and Harms in Lambton County” (Sarnia, ON, 2019), https://lambtonpublichealth.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/REPORT-Situational-Assessement-Drug-and-Alcohol-rev31OCT2019-AODA-3-2.pdf.
9. George Mathewson, “The Holmes Foundry Riot of 1937,” Sarnia Historical Society (blog), 2003, https://www.sarniahistoricalsociety.com/story/the-holmes-foundry-riot-of-1937/; “Bluewater Association for Safety, Environment, and Sustainability,” BASES Website, accessed September 25, 2024, https://lambtonbases.ca/.
10. Jim Brophy and Mark Parent, “Documenting the Asbestos Story in Sarnia,” New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy 9, no. 3 (November 1, 1999): 297–316, https://doi.org/10.2190/4QWT-08TY-RX5J-D5LH.
11. Kristian Larsen et al., “Screening-Level Assessment of Cancer Risk Associated with Ambient Air Exposure in Aamjiwnaang First Nation,” International Journal of Environmental Health Research 32, no. 5 (May 4, 2022): 1055–66, https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2020.1827226.
12. Feras M. Ghazawi et al., “Analysis of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Incidence and Geographic Distribution in Canada from 1992 to 2010 Reveals Disease Clusters in Sarnia and Other Industrial U.S. Border Cities in Ontario,” Cancer 125, no. 11 (2019): 1886–97, https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.32034.