Some people were hoping that there might be a reprieve or delay on the next phase of Ontario’s Excess Soils Regulation (O. Reg. 406/19: On-Site and Excess Soil Management).
However, as the New Year opened, the Resource Productivity & Recovery Authority (RPRA) announced that “From January 1, 2022, construction and development Project Leaders and Operators/Owners of soil Reuse Sites, and Residential Development Soil Depot sites must file notices about how they reuse and dispose of Excess Soil in compliance with Ontario’s Excess Soil Regulation.” NOTE: for more information about RPRA click here.
What Are Excess Soils?
Briefly, excess soil is a volume of excavated soil, such as during construction activities, that cannot be reused on site and must be moved to another site.
We conducted a webinar (with construction legal counsel) in December 2021. It’s about an hour long, but it covers both technical and legal aspects of this regulation (see “The Meat of Ontario’s New Excess Soils Regulation Comes into Force January 1, 2022: Are you Ready?”). For a brief overview (~2-3 minutes) of the Excess Soils Regulation, see our Excess Soils Video.
Excess Soil Regulation for 2022
The requirements, effective January 1, 2022, are significant. As stated by RPRA above, your project involving excess soils require project planning and documentation, registration, and testing and tracking. These requirements will not only add expenses to your project, but can also lead to significant delays if you have not planned well ahead of time.
On January 1, 2022, RPRA provided the following: “On January 1, 2022, the testing, tracking and filing obligations of the Excess Soil Regulation came into effect, requiring construction and development Project Leaders and Operators/Owners of soil Reuse Sites, and Residential Development Soil Depot sites to file notices about how they reuse and dispose of Excess Soil in Ontario.” There is helpful information and links on the RPRA page. NOTE: It is important to understand the exemptions under the Excess Soil Regulation. Contact us for details.
Another page from RPRA provides some idea of the regulatory complexity. See “Excess Soil Notice Internal Database Guide.”
2022 Registry Fees
Apart from any costs you may encounter for moving your excess soils in compliance with the regulations, there are separate fees that “Registry users pay to cover RPRA’s cost for building, maintaining, and operating the Excess Soil Registry and for providing support to Registry Users” (Source: RPRA).
Here is a link to the 2022 Registry Fees for Excess Soil.
Planning for Excess Soil Management in 2022
We have already received several calls from contractors that know they will have to manage excess soils on projects. We have helped them with potential anticipated costs associated with their project. If you know you will have excess soils on your project in 2022, we cannot over emphasize the importance of advanced planning.
Excess Soils Experienced Team
We have gained valuable hands-on experience over the past year in working on excess soil projects in Ontario. Further, as we have taught and written extensively on the excess soil regulation, which is now in place, we are well versed in the requirements. If you would like to discuss your excess soil needs, we can help you develop a strategy, provide you with a quotation, and help you stay in compliance with the excess soil regulation. Contact either my colleague, Clifford Lawton or me at 519-948-7300.
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