Glossary

This glossary presents information on some terms and expressions commonly used by the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI).

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"alloy" includes metal products containing two or more elements as a solid solution, intermetallic compounds, and mixtures of metallic phases.

"article" means a manufactured item that does not release a substance, listed in Schedule 1, under normal conditions of processing or other use.

"base metal" means copper, lead, nickel and zinc.

"by-product" means a substance, listed in Schedule 1, which is incidentally manufactured, processed or otherwise used at the facility at any concentration, and released on site to the environment, released to surface waters or transferred off site for disposal.

"contiguous facility" means all buildings, equipment, structures and stationary items that are located on a single site or on contiguous or adjacent sites and that are owned or operated by the same person and that function as a single integrated site and includes wastewater collection systems that discharge treated or untreated wastewater into surface waters.

"disposal" means the final disposal of a substance to land fill, land application or underground injection, either on the facility site or at an off-site location. Disposal also includes treatment at an off-site location prior to final disposal.

"employee" includes:

(a) a person employed at the facility;

(b) an owner who performs work on site at the facility; and

(c) a person who performs work on site at the facility on a routine basis that is related to the normal operations of the facility, for the period of time the person is performing that work, such as contractors.

"external-combustion equipment" means any equipment with a combustion process that occurs at atmospheric pressure and with excess air.

"facility" means a contiguous facility, a pipeline installation, or an offshore installation.

"fossil fuel" means fuel that is in a solid or liquid state at standard temperature and pressure, such as coal, petroleum or any solid or liquid fuel derived from such.

"full-time employee equivalent" means the unit obtained by dividing by 2 000 hours, the sum of:

(a) the total hours worked by persons employed at the facility, and the total hours of paid vacation and of sick leave taken by persons employed at the facility;

(b) the hours worked on site at the facility by the owner of the facility, if not employed by the facility; and

(c) the hours worked on site at the facility by a person who performs work on a routine basis related to the normal operations of the facility, such as contractors.

"level of quantification" means, in respect of a substance, the lowest concentration that can be accurately measured using sensitive but routine sampling and analytical methods.

"manufacture" means to produce, prepare, or compound a substance listed in Schedule 1 and includes the coincidental production of a substance, listed in Schedule 1, as a by-product as a result of the manufacturing, processing or other use of other substances.

"offshore installation" means an offshore drilling unit, production platform or ship, or subsea installation attached or anchored to the continental shelf of Canada in connection with the exploitation of oil or gas.

"other use" includes any use or disposal of a substance, listed in Schedule 1, relevant to the purpose of the facility which is not included under the definitions of "manufacture" or "process".

"parent company" means the highest level company or group of companies that own or directly control the reporting facility.

"pipeline installation" means a collection of equipment situated at a single site, used in the operation of a natural gas transmission or distribution pipeline.

"PM2.5" means any particulate matter with a diameter less than or equal to 2.5 microns.

"PM10" means any particulate matter with a diameter less than or equal to 10 microns.

"pollution prevention" means the use of processes, practices, materials, products, substances or energy that avoid or minimize the creation of pollutants and waste, and reduce the overall risk to the environment or human health.

"process" means the preparation of a substance, listed in Schedule 1, after its manufacture, for commercial distribution and includes preparation of a substance in the same physical state or chemical form as that received by the facility, or preparation which produces a change in physical state or chemical form.

"recycling" includes any activity that prevents a material or a component of the material from becoming a material destined for disposal.

"release" means the emission or discharge of a substance from the facility site to air surface waters, or under certain circumstances, to land (e.g., spills, leaks)

"secondary aluminum" means aluminum-bearing scrap or aluminum-bearing materials.

"secondary lead" means lead-bearing scrap or lead-bearing materials, other than lead-bearing concentrates derived from a mining operation.

"terminal operations" means

(a) the use of storage tanks and associated equipment at a site used to store or transfer crude oil, artificial crude or intermediates of fuel products into or out of a pipeline; or

(b) operating activities of a primary distribution installation normally equipped with floating roof tanks that receives gasoline by pipeline, railcar, marine vessel or directly from a refinery.

"total particulate matter" means any particulate matter with a diameter less than 100 microns.

"toxicity equivalent" commonly referred to as TEQ, means a mass or concentration which is a sum of the masses or concentrations of individual congeners of polychlorinated dibenzo- p- dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans multiplied by weighting factors set out in the Guide for Reporting to the National Pollutant Release Inventory - 2003.

"treatment" means subjecting the substance to physical, chemical, biological or thermal processes at an off-site location prior to final disposal.

"volatile organic compounds" means volatile organic compounds as defined in the Proposed Order Adding Toxic Substances to Schedule 1 to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, published in the Canada Gazette Part I, Vol. 136, No. 30 (Ottawa, Saturday, July 27, 2002). 

"wood preservation" means the use of a preservative for the preservation of wood by means of heat or pressure treatment, or both, and includes the manufacture, blending, or reformulation of wood preservatives for that purpose.