Sarnia plants have stellar record

Re A ‘toxic soup’ in Sarnia’s Chemical Valley, Oct. 14 I found this article to be prejudicial. The city of Sarnia has had to endure decades of an image that is exacerbated by the choice of words in such headlines.

Extreme descriptions of the outliers from day-to-day operations that are experienced in the petrochemical industry do not reflect the reality of the industry’s contribution to our society.

The governments have set rules by which all the plants must comply and, in Sarnia, the evidence is overwhelming that environmental regulations and laws have been met. Like in any societal undertakings, there are infrequent accidents that are real but are corrected with a view to not occur again.

Our local industry should be complimented for its proven, world-class, track record over the past five decades of improvements in all aspects of air, water and environmental performance.

Being a plant manager of two Chemical Valley plants offered me the opportunity to be a critical witness to much of this progress.

My wife and I have lived in Sarnia for almost 50 years and have experienced its capacity to provide an open, friendly, healthy and secure environment in which to raise our four sons.

Maybe your investigators did not interview the thousands like us who have had these favourable perspectives of the city and the performance of its Chemical Valley industries. Walter F. Petryschuk, former plant manager for Polysar and Suncor, former president of Sun-Canadian Pipeline and former director general of the National Research Council of Canada, Sarnia