Buying and selling commercial/industrial property in Ontario will typically include some level of environmental site assessment. When this assessment identifies a contaminant above the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) Site Condition Standards, the solutions can get complicated, and expensive at times. An improved “tool” recently modified by the MOECC may be helpful at sites where “additional work” is required to complete the environmental assessment.
Ontario Brownfields and Other “Impacted” Sites
First, some background information. Ontario has many municipalities that contain properties that are identified as Brownfields. According to the MOECC, “Brownfield properties are vacant or underutilized places where past industrial or commercial activities may have left contamination (chemical pollution) behind…” To encourage redevelopment of these properties, the MOECC established rules for cleaning up and redeveloping contaminated and underused industrial and commercial properties.
Phase I/II ESA and Record of Site Conditions
The environmental assessment process established under the Brownfields program is applicable to all sites; vacant Brownfields sites or privately-held industrial sites.
Environmental Site Assessments (Phase I and Phase II) establish the guidance to investigate the “potential chemical pollution” at a site. Depending on the proposed use of the property, a Record of Site Condition (RSC) may also be required. A RSC is a document that summarizes the environmental condition (nature and extent of contamination) of a property as determined by a Qualified Person (QPESA, QPRA, P. Eng., or P. Geo).
The MOECC states that a “RSC must be completed and filed in the Environmental Site Registry if a property owner wishes to obtain protection from potential future environmental orders for the property…”
Remediation and Risk Assessments
A property owner can only file an RSC if the contaminated site meets the appropriate generic Site Condition Standards as promulgated by the MOECC. But what if the property doesn’t meet the generic Standards? The property owner may be left with only two choices: (1) remediation of the property to meet the generic Standards, or (2) conduct a Risk Assessment (RA) to develop Property Specific Standards.
Depending on many factors, remediation may be costly and may include long-term monitoring.
To avoid the remediation route, RAs are considered a viable option. The RA process has limitations and can be cumbersome and time consuming.
According to the MOECC, the RAs that were submitted have been prone to errors and omission of data, leading to further site redevelopment delays. The MOECC developed a Modified Generic Risk Assessment Approved Model in 2011 (Version 1), but this, too, had limitations.
2016 Modified Generic Risk Assessment (MGRA) Approved Model
In 2016, the MOECC issued a revised version of the MGRA Approved Model (Version 2). As written in the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario newsletter dated January 25, 2018:
The MGRA Approved Model was developed in April 2011 and was last updated in November 2016 as Version 2 of the Approved Model. It aims to provide a more streamlined approach to developing property specific standards (PSS) as part of the Risk Assessment (RA) process under the Ontario Regulation 153/04. As per the MOECC guide, “Version 2 is designed to allow a greater number of sites across the province to qualify for this streamlined RA process. These changes provide a greater number of options for modifying component values, make the model more user friendly, correct errors in the model discovered since the model was first published, and update the model to reflect current science while continuing to provide the same level of environmental and human health protection.”
MGRA Version 2 Improvements
The MGRA Approved Model Version 2 allows for the input of an increased range of site-specific data. The MGRA Version 2 also allows for eliminating inapplicable pathways and/or adding Risk Management Measures into the MGRA Approved Model.
Version 2 represents a significant improvement over Version 1, but there are several limitations, and it is not applicable for all properties. This is, however, one more potential tool to consider when faced with remediation or conducting an RA.
If you would like to discuss the potential application of the MGRA Version 2 on your site or explore other remediation options, please contact me or my colleague, Christopher Paré. You can reach us at 519-979-7300.