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Managing Excess Soils in Ontario
How you manage excess soils is increasingly important to the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks (MECP). The MECP might be more recognizable under its former name, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC). If it’s important to the MECP, it’s important to the regulated community. Concerns about managing excess soils was mentioned as one of the top environmental management priorities for the regulated community in our recent survey. That’s not surprising, as much has changed since our April 2016 article in...
read moreSoil Vapour Intrusion: A Complex and Challenging Process
Last year, my colleagues “set out” to compile vapour intrusion (VI) standards in each Canadian Province, as well as in each US State. This effort, we soon found out, was not as easy as we had envisioned. More on these findings later. Understanding Vapour Intrusion Let’s begin by establishing the VI framework. Vapour intrusion is a process by which chemicals from soil and groundwater volatilize and migrate into buildings. These underlying vapours can find their way into buildings through cracks, sump pumps, and utility corridors. VI was...
read moreInsurance Companies Targeted by Environmentalists
For 30 years, Dragun has provided litigation support on a variety of environmental issues, so we always keep an eye on what is happening with potential environmental litigation activity. Environmental Groups have long targeted various industries or industry groups for their perceived violations of the public trust, specifically the environment. Historical Environmental Issues Early grass root efforts focused on mismanagement of waste by-products that led to the severely-polluted Cuyahoga River in Ohio, the Sydney Tar Ponds in Nova Scotia, or...
read moreEnvironmental Issues Most Important to You
What’s the most important environmental issue to you? This is the question we have asked the last two years while attending the CANECT Environmental Compliance and Due Diligence Training Conference in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Just as last year, the entire survey consisted of one question: “What is the most important environmental issue facing the regulated community in Ontario or Canada wide?” We offered no explanation beyond this. We spoke with people from a wide range of industry groups, municipal governments, lawyers, consultants...
read moreCanadian Oil Refineries Focus of Articles
To say that our economy is dependent on “black gold” or fossil fuels is an understatement. The energy from fossil fuels, as well as the myriad of other natural resources, support our highly mobile, communicative, and knowledge-based economy. As we refine our various natural resources for “consumption,” there are environmental management considerations. While our consumer-based society certainly enjoys the end products (gasoline/diesel fuel, mobile phones, computers, flat-screen, high-definition televisions, medical advancements, clothing,...
read moreSolving Groundwater Contamination: Another Piece of the Puzzle
In explaining how you go about solving complex soil and groundwater problems, we’ve used various analogies over the years, including putting together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and assembling building blocks to develop a robust conceptual site model. The point being, soil and groundwater assessment and remediation can be complex, and in order to find the best solution, you will often need more than one tool and/or one discipline to get you to your end point. Dr. Fatemeh Vakili, who joined Dragun in December 2017, talked about one of the...
read morePort Hope, Ontario, Cleanup and New Concerns
As progress is reported on Canada’s largest environmental cleanup at the site in Port Hope, Ontario, more questions are arising. Canada’s Largest Environmental Cleanup Some indication of the level of effort associated with this site is that there is a website devoted to the Port Hope Area Initiative, or PHAI. This massive project is complicated by the fact that the historical contamination affects many residents in the area. According to the website, “The Port Hope Project involves the cleanup of historic (sic) low-level radioactive waste...
read moreChanges to Canadian Federal Environmental Legislation
Just last week we mentioned developments on the federal level that the regulated community is monitoring (see Supreme Court of Canada Considers Environmental Liability Case). This isn’t the only federal legislative activity that is being considered and getting attention from many groups across Canada. The recent proposed legislation was “pledged” in the 2015 election campaign. Specifically, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is “undoing” several legislative changes from the former (Harper) administration. These changes are set out in Bill 69,...
read moreSupreme Court of Canada Considers Environmental Liability Case
Several years ago, my colleague and I wrote an article with respect to how the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) viewed environmental liability in an incident in Kawartha Lakes. We were certainly not the only one to express concern about this case. There is another environmental liability case that is getting plenty of attention. The case, which has been forwarded to the Supreme Court of Canada, is a relatively-small bankruptcy case in Alberta. However, it is being watched by the Canadian environmental...
read moreEnvironmental Enforcement News Focused on Water Impairment
Environmental compliance is never a “done deal.” We must be diligent about ongoing obligations as well as potential and actual regulatory changes. The unfortunate consequence of non-compliance can, at times, lead to enforcement activity. And in the first couple of months of 2018, we have seen several enforcement cases (Provincial and Federal) reach a conclusion. Here is a look at some of the enforcement activity thus far in 2018. Discharge to Water Leads to Environmental Violation A Ruthven, Ontario, food manufacturing company was fined...
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