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Should Canadians be Concerned about Trends in US Environmental Regulations?
As a Canadian with 25 years of experience in the environmental business working both in Canada and United States, I “get” that our countries have very close ties. After all, we share a nearly 9,000-km border; the Windsor-Detroit border is the busiest, commercial-land, border crossing in North America. Thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement, we share the largest, free-trade region in the world. With all that Canada shares with the US, it’s not surprising that we share some environmental concerns as well. In fact, in recognition...
read moreOntario Pesticide Regulation Begins July 1st
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) recently announced new regulations relating to neonicotinoids (or neonics) that will take effect July 1, 2015. According to the MOECC, “Ontario will be the first jurisdiction in North America to protect bees and other pollinators through new rules to reduce the number of acres planted with neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seeds by 80 per cent by 2017.” The MOECC states that the new requirements will be put in place for “the sale and use of neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seed...
read moreDid You Miss Your NPRI Reporting Deadline?
By the time we are posting this blog, your National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) reporting should have been completed and submitted for the year. These inventories are required (by federal law) to be reported each year on June 1st. Because there are still facilities that may be unaware of their reporting requirements, Environment Canada has made an effort to find those non-reporting facilities to help get them get into compliance. Do You Need to Submit a NPRI Report? Evaluating your reporting obligations will require your close review...
read moreCollection of Meaningful Environmental Data
If you have read any of our previous blog posts, attended any of our seminars or webinars, or read about how we have solved soil and groundwater problems, you know we place a lot of emphasis on getting each step right. And getting each step right begins with the collection of environmental data in the field. In fact, last year, one of my colleagues, Clifford Lawton, wrote what amounted to a treatise on the importance of proper sample collection (see Soil and Groundwater Sampling – What Can Go Wrong?). Because we believe sample collection is...
read moreRegulating Nanoscale Materials
Chemical substances in Canada are regulated under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999. Substances are in one of two groups – existing or new. There are about 23,000 existing or current substances on the Domestic Substance List (DSL). In 2006, the 23,000 substances of the Domestic Substances List were “categorized” according to the potential risk they posed to human health and the environment. This set the priority by which substances were to be assessed under the Chemicals Management Plan (CMP), beginning with the chemicals that...
read moreOntario Companies Prepare for the Greenhouse Gas Cap and Trade Program
Will Ontario’s Cap and Trade system for greenhouse gases impact industry? Yes. How will it impact industry? We don’t know yet. Ontario’s GHG Cap and Trade Program By now you know that Ontario has joined Quebec, California, and others in the Western Climate Initiative by establishing a cap and trade system for Greenhouse Gases (GHG) (Ontario actually joined the Western Climate Initiative in 2008). With the mandatory cap and trade system in place, it will build on the previous requirements O. Reg. 452/09: Greenhouse Gas Emissions...
read moreSeven Common, Environmental Site-Assessment Mistakes
In our last blog, I asked Dr. Michael Sklash questions relating to TCE – how it behaves in the environment, what to do if you had a release, etc… While Mike did not mention it in our interview, a great number of our projects (regardless of the contaminant) begin with a peer review of the existing work (investigation, remediation, etc). So, I asked Mike to share, based on his experience, the most common mistakes he has seen over the last 27 years when doing peer reviews. The Seven Common Mistakes Figures not drawn to scale. It is hard to...
read moreTCE Found in London, Ontario, Groundwater: What you need to know about TCE
On March 10th, CTV reported that elevated levels of trichloroethene (TCE) were found in groundwater along Brydges Street in London, Ontario. It is not currently known if there is any immediate health risk to the local community. As we understand, indoor air will be tested to assess the potential for vapour intrusion in homes (read more about vapour intrusion). The current London issue aside, TCE has been amongst the most common chemical contaminants in soil and groundwater we have assessed/addressed over the past 25-plus years. In fact,...
read moreProtecting the Great Lakes – Will This Act Help?
It’s back. The “it” is the Great Lakes Protection Act, and, in February 2015, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change announced that the Act had been reintroduced. For those of you who have been following this issue, you know that the bill was first introduced in June 2012, but it didn’t get much traction. So what’s changed? And why is this legislation again being considered? If I were to speculate, based on recent environmental news stories, I would say that it might be a matter of the right “climate” to reintroduce this Act....
read moreWhat to do When You Discover a Leaking Underground Storage Tank?
You’ve just discovered that your underground storage tank (UST) and/or associated underground piping has been leaking petroleum products into the environment. The difference between this becoming an expensive nightmare and “just” a response activity may depend on your measured response. Certainly, you need to make sure you are doing everything you can to minimize your release and the subsequent impact to human health and the environment while maintaining compliance. While you will likely be in “emergency mode,” remember to document...
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