Chlorine Shortage has TD pool indefinitely closing Wednesday, June 16
Locals were taking advantage of the Northern Wasco County Aquatic Center today, Tuesday, June 15th. The pool is set to shutter tomorrow June 16th after it became clear that Chlorine supplies have been curtailed due to supply chain disruptions throughout the Pacific Northwest. The pool will reopen when supplies become available, making it a safe place for community swimming and recreation.
From CCCNews and Northern Wasco County Recreation District and City of The Dalles:
The Dalles public pool will close tomorrow as supply disruptions have led to region-wide chlorine shortages across the Pacific Northwest.
This has resulted in suppliers rationing distribution to municipal water systems and canceling deliveries to non-essential customers, such as public swimming pools.
The Northern Wasco County Aquatic Center, 602 West Second St., will close to the public Wednesday, June 16th until further notice.
The City of The Dalles public water supply will operate as normal with no service disruptions.
Additional information can be found on the Park District website here: www.nwprd.org or at The City of The Dalles website: http://www.ci.the-dalles.or.us/
Read the letter about the chlorine shortage from Jones Chemical here.
Westlake Chemical which supplies chlorine to The Dalles via a Jones Chemical declared a force majeure (FM) at its Chlor-Alkali production unit of capacity 0.3 million Metric Tonnes per year based in Natrium, West Virginia.
Chemical Companies invoke “force majeure” to relieve themselves of contractual obligations.
The company stated that the production has been directly and adversely impacted by the sudden and unexpected failure of a critical piece of processing equipment. The letter also mentioned that the duration for the FM remains unclear as of now, according to a story on chemanalyst.com
The US is already facing a rare shortage of Chlorine tablets after Hurricane Laura knocked down key producer, BioLab’s, Lake Charles, Louisiana facility. The plant is expected to resume production in 2022. Chlorine supply in the US remains critical since February when Olin chemical corporation faced setbacks in chlorine production in the aftermath of the polar storm. The situation has been exacerbated by force majeures announced by several merchant Chlorine and Chlor-Alkali manufacturers who had been selling Chlorine on allocation, the story states.
In Hood River, the pool is expected to remain open for at least four or five weeks.
The pool had the good fortune of receiving a 500-gallon delivery of chlorine last week and has enough of the bacteria- and virus-killing compound to keep them operable into late July, according to Marcie Wily, Assistant Director at Hood River Valley Parks and Recreation District.
“As soon as we heard the news, we reached out to find as many sources as we can,” she said. “ We should be ok, for I’d guess four to five weeks is my best guess. Hopefully, we will be able to ride it out.”
Read the related story to chlorine production plant failures at spglobal.com here.
