Saskatoon Chemicals

Year Published:  1982
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX2606

Abstract: 
SASKATOON CHEMICALS is one of a series of "Backgrounder" booklets published by the Saskatchewan Environmental Society (SES) to provide basic informatin to the general public on contemporary environmental issues. This booklet begins with a letter from the SES to the general manager of Saskatoon Chemicals (one of the major chemical producing companies in Saskatchewan) in response to the planned sodium chlorate plant expansion.

A series of public information meetings raised a number of concerns which the SES feels Saskatoon Chemicals should deal with in the Environmental Impact Statement the expansion:

- An alternate location for the expansion; i.e. right at the Prince Albert Pulp Mills;
- The potential phase-out of the existing plant in the long term;
- Safety considerations
- Resources use;
- The rising cost of electricity

The booklet provides background information regarding: "the Chemicals Produced" (chlorine, sodium chlorate, calcium hypochlorite, caustic soda, and hydrogen) "The Product or Process", "Resource Use, Energy, and Profitability", "The Location of the Plant (including maps), and "The Environmental Impact Statement."

According to SES members present at recent public meetings, the general public is most concerned about the dangers of chlorine, notorius because of its use as a poison gas in World War I. SES concludes: "There seems no doubt that if failure of a large chlorine storage tank occured, a disaster of major proportions could result for Saskatoon." Other chemicals produced by the company have their own potential dangers. Both sodium chlorate and calcium hypochlorite have not been cleared of the possibility of being cancer or birth-defect causing agents.

Subject Headings

• Chemicals