Sarnia, Ontario has just over 72,000 inhabitants, but over 60 chemical plants and oil refineries sit in a 15-mile-wide section outside town known as "Chemical Valley."
The smokestack-filled skyline used to be a point of pride for Ontarians, a symbol of production, economy, and modernity. Now, the air smells like rotten eggs and visitors are advised to use respirators. In 2005 there was a record high of 46 smog days when school was cancelled because of the dangerously high concentration of pollutants in the air.
The water is poisoned too. The refineries and plants all sit on the bank of the St. Clair River, where they are accessible by industrial ships. The runoff of from the chemical industry has severely polluted the river, which feeds into Lake Huron.
The most at-risk place in Sarnia is the Aamjiwnaang First Nations Reserve, home to a few hundred Chippewa, which is surrounded by petroleum refineries. It's one of the most toxic places in North America, with sulphur-scented air that outsiders find hard to breathe. The close quarters mean that factory accidents come at a high cost. Daycares, schools, workplaces, and public parks have all seen waves of illnesses that residents blame on refinery spills.
Sarnia has the highest reported cases of hospitalization due to respiratory illness of the entire province and an abnormally high miscarriage rate. Authorities from groups like Dow Chemical, Sunoco, and Shell have dismissed health and quality of life complaints as anecdotal and unrelated to their plants on the edge of town.