Chemical detonation to occur on North Campus

On Saturday August 23, the Edmonton Police Service’s (EPS) Bomb Disposal Unit and Edmonton Fire Rescue Services Hazardous Materials Team will detonate hazardous chemicals on North Campus.

The University of Alberta media relations provided a statement over email to The Gateway. It stated that the detonation will occur to safely dispose of a hazardous chemical.

“This chemical, a known peroxide-former, was found to pose a potential explosive risk due to its condition and uncertain storage duration,” the statement said. 

“While these events are rare, they do occur in large research-intensive universities. To minimize these occurrences, the university has moved to a standardized chemical inventory system for research laboratories to identify potential hazards.”

A notice of the detonation and closure of Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences (CCIS) west wing, Biological Sciences building genetics wing, National Institute of Nanotechnology (NINT), and the Mechanical Engineering building (MEC) was posted to the uAlberta subreddit. Media relations’ statement said the closures were done as a precaution.

At the time of publication, no public notice had been issued by the U of A or EPS. Media relations said notification was given to workers in affected areas to minimize the disruption to their work or research. Access to the area will be restricted on the day of the event to ensure safety of the general public.

Past detonations and safety concerns

A chemical detonation that occurred in November of 2021 took place in Hawrelak Park. According to documents obtained by the CBC through a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) request, the hazardous chemicals were found two months earlier. 

The documents also found that there had been numerous safety violations. One of the deficiencies was improper chemical storage, as well as four others that were not disclosed. The lab where the chemicals were found was closed immediately after the inspection.

After the disposal, the Health, Safety, and Environment team made 11 recommendations to improve lab safety. Those recommendations were not disclosed in the FOIP documents, but as of July 2022, U of A media relations said all recommendations had been implemented. 

A new chemical inventory and hazardous waste management system

As part of the response to that, the U of A is transitioning to a centralized Chemical Inventory and Hazardous Waste Management (CIHWM) system. The system will more effectively manage chemical materials and hazardous waste disposal, the website states.

Part of the transition is moving to a digital Chemical Inventory Module, as opposed to managing lab inventories that may include handwritten documents, Excel spreadsheets, and other software. The website states this will reduce the amount of time spent on chemical inventory management and reconciliation, as well as improving safety and reducing waste.

The new CIHWM system, called UALabSync, will be mandatory for all university labs by the end of 2025.

A timeline from a slide deck for a town hall held in the 2025 winter semester stated that the pilot project of the new program was completed in August 2025. The roll-out of the new website and inventory module occurred in 2024.

The slide deck stated that since a town hall held in October 2024, about 170 principal investigators (PIs), or the head of a lab, had transitioned to the Chemical Inventory Module. About 350 rooms had been visited to set-up, train, and lab inventory.

UPDATE: This article was updated at 2:14 p.m. on August 22, 2025 to include the U of A’s comment on protocols for handling hazardous chemicals.