Waste Designation If the…

Waste Designation

If the site alteration permit, pit rehabilitation plan, or other site specific instrument has weaker standards than the provincial standards, it is not acceptable that the weaker standards prevail.

Recommendation: The Soil Rules should prevail in all cases for removing the “waste” designation.

The wording of the regulation does not agree with the overview document which states that:
"If excess soil is being deposited at a site that is used primarily for depositing excess soil, that soil would be considered a waste and associated Environmental Compliance Approvals (ECAs) would be required."

Recommendation: The wording of the regulation and the soil rules must make it clear that excess soil brought to any reuse site must have an intended reuse, if not, it is considered waste and needs an ECA or needs to go to an alternate waste ECA disposal site.

Registry of Sites and Tracking of Soil

The proposed regulations will require excess soil management plans be prepared for sites with a potential of contamination, and the existence of the plan must be registered. In order for the public to know what is going into the receiving sites, current information must be available on a site searchable by the address or location of the receiving.

Recommendation I: Excess Soil Management Plans and tracking records must be held by, and be audited by, the government.

Recommendation II: It must be possible to search a public website by address of the receiving site to see the quality and quantity of the soil that is being deposited there.

Source Responsibility

The Excess Soil Management Plan (ESMP) will include a declaration by the project leader and a declaration by the Qualified Person (QP) who prepared the plan. The QP is likely to be an individual consultant. The project leader is defined as the person(s) “ultimately responsible for making decisions relating to the planning and implementation of the project” and project is something that involves excavation and development. The owner of the land of the source site should ultimately be responsible.

Recommendation: The ESMP should include a declaration from the owner of the source site that acknowledges responsibility for the excess soil until it is deposited at a waste disposal site or has been deemed to no longer be a waste.

Environmentally Sensitive Areas

The definition of Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) does not currently include areas of high aquifer vulnerability or well-head protection areas. Given that soil that has been deemed "clean" has later been found to be contaminated, the precautionary principle must be applied.

Recommendation: The definition of Environmentally Sensitive Areas must be expanded to include areas of high aquifer vulnerability and well-head protection areas as designated in provincial or municipal plans and thus limit any soil deposited in those areas to Table 1.

Soil Processing Sites

Given that soil remediation may be ineffective on some contaminants, there is variation in the Environment Compliance Approvals that are granted to different sites, and that a small amount of soil is actually tested, soils from soil remediation facilities must not be allowed in Environmentally Sensitive Areas.

Recommendation: Soils from soil processing sites, even if labeled as Table 1, must be excluded from Environmentally Sensitive Areas, including areas of high aquifer vulnerability and well-head protection areas.

Beneficial Purpose

Earthroots strongly supports the concept of the beneficial purpose, which states that excess soil brought to any reuse site must have an intended reuse, and if not, it should be considered waste and require an ECA or need to go to an alternate ECA waste disposal site.

Enforcement

Recommendation: Proper oversight and enforcement is required to ensure standards are met and inappropriate landfill and dumping are deterred.

Qualified Persons

Recommendation: Qualified Persons must undergo specific training and certification to ensure they have the knowledge and ability to oversee this vital part of the excess soil regulation process.