I live in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, which is located on the southern shore of Lake Huron. I was born in Swaziland in Southern Africa where my parents were both missionaries for a number of years. Our family came to Canada (my Mother's homeland) when I was eight. I attended Lansdowne Public School, St. Clair Secondary School and graduated from Lambton College with a diploma in Chemical Engineering Technology.
My Father’s side of the family comes from Sunderland in Northern England. My Mother’s side comes from Hastings in Southern England and Canada. I have recently acquired my British citizenship and would like to travel there soon.
After school, Ontario Hydro hired me on as a Chemical Technician at the Bruce A Nuclear Generating Station near Tiverton Ontario. After working there for six years, I accepted a position at the Lambton Generating Station near Courtright Ontario south of Sarnia. I have been working there since 1996, but if the Ontario Liberal Government has its way, the station will close at the end of 2008. The Liberal plan is to close all coal fired generating stations, thus removing 7500Megawatts of supply and replace it with natural gas generators. To see why this is not a good idea, see the Clean Affordable Energy Alliance website.
Lambton Generating Station is one of the cleanest burning coal fired station in Canada due to the pollution control equipment that has been installed over the years. Some of my responsibilities there include operating the Water Treatment Plant that supplies demineralized (pure) water to the boilers, ensuring the proper chemical treatment of various systems in the plant, analyzing gypsum for purity, performing confined space air quality testing, monitoring plant effluent for environmental parameters.
A few years ago Ontario Hydro split off into several independent companies, one of which is Ontario Power Generation that now runs Lambton G.S. The Bruce Nuclear Power Development has become Bruce Power.