5 Things You Don't Know About the Pool Chlorine Crisis
Episode description
United States Braces for 2021 Chlorine Shortage as Pool Season Rapidly Approaches
If you have a swimming pool, you've probably already noticed soaring Chlorine Prices. In fact, Pool owners should prepare themselves to pay more for pool chlorine in 2021 than ever before and maybe more this year than the last two years combined – that is, until it's gone. Then what? Unfortunately, due to a series of unpredictable and abrupt events, coast-to-coast poolmageddon has become a real threat.
Unprecedented pool industry growth in 2020 has put more recreational water in Americans' backyards than ever before. With 'shelter-in-place quarantine laws in effect, dollars earmarked for vacations found a home in home improvement projects and installing a swimming pool topped many lists. This increased demand for pool chlorine mirrored the product's consumption in its use as a strong disinfectant against coronavirus disease.
A crippling blow was dealt by hurricane Laura in Louisiana when a fire burned the largest U.S. chlorine manufacturing plant to the ground in the late Summer of that same year. The impact of the loss of an estimated 800 tons of pool chlorine (Reuters) had forced prices to soar with increases of upwards of thirty percent, and bucket quantity purchasing restrictions enforced.
Luckily, most pool-owning Americans were on the cusp of closing pools for the winter, as has become the Labor Day holiday tradition. Unfortunately, chlorine production has not recovered, and the shortage will likely last well into 2022. This news has this year's pool opening season looking bleak at best.
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