Much of the world seems to have come to a complete standstill. We all share a singular priority – stop the spread of COVID-19. For nearly everyone, this means there is no business as usual. Some are working at home, some are experiencing layoffs, and everyone has experienced drastic changes to every imaginable aspect of life. While we continue to work on projects, we do so with a great deal more caution to protect everyone from this pandemic. While we don’t know when...
Read MoreEnvironmental Health and Safety Issues in the News
Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) issues have all been in the news of late. Dominating the health part of EHS is the Coronavirus, or COVID 19, which is currently a significant challenge for companies and governments worldwide. Infectious diseases aside, there were other EHS items in the news recently. Hydrogen Cyanide Release As recently reported in a couple of different publications, Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, had a release of hydrogen cyanide that...
Read MoreProblems with Soil Dumping and Leachate Mismanaged
While there is a lot of press over big-pictures issues, including PFAS, climate change, and pollution from plastic waste, environmental management issues; however, are not nearly as lofty or newsworthy. Environmental management issues are likely to be far more pedestrian, like “What do we do with all this soil?” Dumping Soil and Debris in Open Lots One of those management issues that we talked about on numerous occasions is the soil and debris from construction activity...
Read MoreReleases Impacting Surface Waters in Canada
Releases to the subsurface (from underground storage tanks, pipelines, etc.) are far less visible to the public. Often these releases, which can lead to groundwater remediation, can go undetected for hours, days, weeks, or even years. Surface water releases, on the other hand, can be very visible and can quickly get the attention of Environmental Health and Safety professionals, regulators, and the public. There were several releases to surface water reported that did get...
Read MoreChanges to Industrial Effluent Program in Ontario
The proposal on October 22, 2019 (comment period closed on December 6, 2019) to revoke (and replace with Environmental Compliance Approval) the Municipal Industrial Strategy for Abatement (MISA) has been met with opposition from some environmental groups. This is not too dissimilar to just about any proposed changes to environmental regulation. Proposed Changes to Industrial Effluent Program The summary of the proposed regulation on Ontario’s Regulatory Registry reads, “We...
Read MoreMore Environmental Regulatory Changes in Ontario
In our December 20, 2019, blog we discussed some of the changes to the (Ontario) Environmental Protection Act. Most notably, we provided information with respect to excess soils management; however, the government of Ontario revealed other changes at the end of 2019. In the Backgrounder titled, “Regulations and Statues in Force as of January 1, 2020,” a list of changes (across several ministries) were shared. With respect to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation,...
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