A crowd of more than 100 people marched some 10 kilometres through Sarnia’s industrial stretch dubbed "Chemical Valley" on March 15, 2013. They were waving signs like "Cancer Alley" and "Toxic Tour" to highlight health and environmental concerns related to refineries such as Imperial Oil, Suncor and Shell.
The Aamjiwnaang Environmental Committee has completed a health study that discovered several issues within the community, such as respiratory problems, miscarriages, high blood pressure, and chronic headaches.
A number of the protesters wore gas masks.
Protesters were spurred into action by a January 2013 mercaptan leak at Corunna’s Shell refinery. At the time, officials traced an odd smell in the air back to the company's flare collection system, which holds sour water. It contains light crude oil components such as hydrogen sulfide and mercaptan.
Protesters are also up in arms over the proposed Enbridge pipeline reversal that would bring bitumen from the Alberta oil sands to a Sarnia refinery.