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Federal Contaminated Sites National Workshop
March 7-10, 2006
For more information or to register, please visit our website at http://www.rpic-ibic.ca
Introduction
Important Note
What is a contaminated site?
Creation of the inventory
INTRODUCTION
The Government of Canada introduced the Federal Contaminated Sites and Solid Waste Landfills Inventory Policy on July 1, 2000. This policy states that departments and agencies that hold property must establish and maintain a database of their contaminated sites and solid waste landfills, and that this information must be submitted to the Treasury Board Secretariat for inclusion in a central inventory.
This policy was followed in June 2002 by the introduction of the Contaminated Sites Management Policy and the Policy on Accounting for Costs and Liabilities related to Contaminated Sites.
The inventory includes all known federal contaminated sites for which departments and agencies are accountable. It does not include properties owned by Crown corporations. Sites may vary from several square metres of soil contaminated by leaking batteries to abandoned mine sites in the North contaminated with heavy metals. The inventory also includes non-federal contaminated sites for which the Government of Canada has accepted some or all financial responsibility.
IMPORTANT NOTE
It is important to note that the classification for each site does not necessarily reflect its current status. For example, there are roughly 800 sites listed as Class 1, which means "action required." But as of June 17, 2002, 25% of Class 1 sites had already been remediated, 42% were in the process of being remediated, and 33% were still undergoing assessment.
The classification system used in the inventory was developed by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. Under this system, a permanent classification is assigned to each site at the time it is assessed for contaminants, with Class 1 representing those sites for which action is required, Class 2 those sites for which action is likely required, etc. It is important to note that the initial classification of a site will not change, no matter what steps are taken to remediate or otherwise manage the site. This means that, even in situations where Class 1 sites have already been remediated, they would still retain their standing as Class 1 sites. However, their "current status" would change to "remediation completed."
For the most complete information on any given site, users of the inventory should therefore check the "current status" field for the site.
WHAT IS A CONTAMINATED SITE?
According to the definition adopted by the government, a contaminated site is "one at which substances occur at concentrations (1) above (normally occurring) background levels and pose or are likely to pose an immediate or long term hazard to human health or the environment, or (2) exceeding levels specified in policies and regulations."
With this in mind, the main qualification for including a site in the inventory is that there is a concentration of a substance in the soil or ground water (usually a petroleum product or a metal) that is higher than expected for that region of Canada. There must also be some evidence that this concentration poses a risk to human health or the environment.
This risk is determined in a step-by-step process, beginning with a rough estimate of the contamination based on guidelines agreed to by federal, provincial and territorial environment ministers, all of whom are members of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME). The final stage in the procedure process is an Environmental Site Assessment that uses such tools as field sampling and laboratory analysis to determine the type and level of contamination present.
Although the inventory does not currently contain any solid waste landfills, these areas are defined as "sites that have been subject to engineered waste control mechanisms which may include: soil filling or covering, hydrogeological monitoring, or management of the waste disposal process."
CREATION OF THE INVENTORY
The inventory project began in June 2000 when the government committed to gather and make public a list of its contaminated sites. To this end, the government has allocated a total of $30 million to assist departments in assessing, identifying and classifying their sites. Now, with much of the assessment and identification work completed, the government is fulfilling its commitment to openness and transparency by making its inventory of federal sites available to all Canadians.
This inventory is very much a "work in progress", to which additional sites and improved information will continually be added. Ongoing work on assessing federal properties is expected to add more sites to the list, particularly over the next 6 months.
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