Just in time for the most popular time of the year for everyday consumers to begin the task of opening up their pools for summer, a chlorine shortage coupled with a price hike.

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In 2020, we thought things couldn't get more bizarre with UFO footage released by the Pentagon, the discovery of murder hornets and, wild monkeys stealing vials containing the global pandemic-inducing coronavirus.

And now we are in the fifth month of 2021 and the insanity continues but in a different direction this time. Rising prices is the new trend and on things that we might not have expected such as lumber and now, chlorine. '

I was surprised to see several friends comment on social media that they'd been out shopping and stopped to stock up on the chlorine that they would need for summer swimming only to discover that not only is there very little product but that the prices on what they could find were substantially more than what they'd paid this same time last year.

Apparently, much like lumber, the reason for the shortage and price increase has a lot to do with supply and demand. According to NOLA, a sprawling fire at the BioLab complex in Louisiana last August raged on for 50 hours. BioLab is a manufacturer of chlorine.

USA Today explains that more Americans spent time at home last year and that was a big reason for the spike in demand for chlorine and the fire at BioLab didn't help because production was halted and production to supply the demand has yet to be met.

Goldman Sachs Financials issued a report on the shortage of chlorine and while the chlorine industry is playing catchup, the financial firm advises consumers to expect to pay about 58 percent more this year for chlorine.

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