Excess Soils Regulation –…

Excess Soils Regulation – 2024 Proposed Changes
Comments from United Soils Management

United Soils Management is a beneficial reuse site that accepts clean fill under a municipal instrument granted in 2016. We are a key stakeholder in the management of excess soils.
We have reviewed the proposed regulatory amendments to encourage greater reuse of excess soil. The proposed changes should, in general, clarify the interpretation of the regulation and increase the beneficial reuse of excess soil.
The proposal to have some of the excess and liquid soil managed temporarily at depots will need strong enforcement to ensure that only clean soil is managed at the depots and that quantities do not increase beyond the allowable quantities.
The storage of 25,000 m3 of soil is significant, and if this soil cannot be managed at a beneficial reuse site, the cost to dispose of it will be in the millions of dollars. The risk for site abandonment will be significant if a site is not managed well. Requirements for financial assurance and penalties for non-compliance need to be included, to ensure that depots are not used to accept soil that will not have a realistic market for reuse.
In addition, the amount of storage and associated truck traffic for the liquid soil and dry soil sites will affect the surrounding sites. Even without the need for ECAs, there should be municipal approval processes to control the location of these sites. Acknowledgement of these other levels of permitting might be helpful in the changes of the regulation, to ensure the appropriate context is maintained.
Enforcement might require audits of record keeping as well as potential third party sampling. Including wording around enforcement in the regulation would be beneficial.