Prevention

Alberta Environment regulates a wide range of industrial facilities in the province under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act and the Water Act. This is most commonly done through conditions set out in environmental licences, approvals or codes of practice. Alberta Environment’s Compliance Inspection Program ensures that facilities meet the conditions of their licences, approvals or registrations.

Department inspectors can review and inspect all aspects of a facility’s approval or registration in one visit to the facility. The inspection can include taking samples of soil, groundwater and effluent, and of air emissions at their source.

Alberta Environment works with licence, approval and registration holders to identify and correct areas of non-compliance. Significant non-compliance can be the subject of enforcement action.

FACTS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

• Alberta Environment Compliance Inspection Program

INDUSTRIAL MONITORING

Alberta Environment’s regulated community also play a key role in preventing environmental impacts through compulsory monitoring and reporting and innovative partnership initiatives.

Compulsory monitoring is part of the environmental cost of an industry doing business in Alberta and is consistent with the "polluter pays" principle.

Compulsory industry monitoring serves a number of purposes for both industry and the government, including:

• Ensuring that pollution control technologies are operating effectively
• Providing an early warning system for potential contamination issues
• Characterizing complex emissions to determine potential environmental impacts
• Providing information for provincial and national emission inventories that are used in environmental management
• Assessing the impact of releases on the environment
• Providing data for tracking trends in environmental performance and effects

FACTS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

• Compulsory Industry Monitoring

PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVES
Alberta Environment is committed to working with Albertans to develop new and innovative ways to meet our compliance assurance objectives. By working with partners in communities throughout the province, Alberta Environment ensures that Albertans continue to enjoy the clean and healthy environment that is such an important part of our province's natural beauty.

Air Monitoring Vehicles
Alberta Environment operates a Mobile Air Monitoring Laboratory to monitor and sample the air at any location around Alberta. In addition, Alberta Environment, in partnership with the City of Calgary Fire Department, put into service an Air Monitoring Vehicle to monitor air quality at major incidents and help protect the health and safety of emergency personnel, Calgarians and citizens in surrounding areas.

The vehicle houses the latest in high-tech air monitoring equipment. Staff from Alberta Environment and the Fire Department will be able to provide southern Alberta with vital air quality information during major emergencies.

Alberta Environment is designing similar vehicles in partnership with the City of Edmonton and the County of Strathcona.

Environmental Response Centre
Alberta Environment operates a toll free, 24-hour environmental “hotline” that allows Albertans to contact the department with concerns about possible environmental infractions or potential environmental emergencies. Industry also uses the hotline to report releases or contraventions of environmental legislation.

In an effort to provide a “one-window” for Albertans to report potential environmental infractions, the call centre also operates hotlines for Alberta Transportation, Environment Canada and the Natural Resources Conservation Board.

Between April 1, 2003 and March 31, 2004 the centre handled 12,267 calls, including 3,149 public complaints and 6,206 calls from Alberta industry.

Laboratory Chemical Waste and Storage in Schools
Alberta Environment canvassed 23 school boards in the Central Region to determine how school laboratory chemical wastes were being stored and disposed. As a result of this survey, it became apparent that schools had inconsistent procedures for the storage and disposal of laboratory chemical wastes both regionally and provincially, and the need for a provincial standard was identified. Consequently, Alberta Environment formed a partnership with Alberta Learning to draft a provincial policy that is scheduled for implementation in fall of 2004.

Ice-Fishing Hut Abandonment Educational Initiative
Following reports of a truck camper sinking near the shore of Gull Lake in the spring of 2003, Alberta Environment launched a proactive education program at Gull Lake, Sylvan Lake and Pigeon Lake to inform ice fishermen about the hazards of leaving ice-fishing huts to fall into the lake.

Information was posted at the regular entry points to the lakes, on community bulletin boards, in service stations and local stores. During the ice fishing season, Alberta Environment visited the lakes to inform fishermen and check for potential huts that may be pulled out on the ice and considered to be disposable. Information regarding removal was left on the questionable huts as it got closer to the end of fishing season and a public service announcement was released in mid-March. Many shelters that were thought to be a potential problem were removed by owners following the announcements.

Inspection of the lake on March 31, 2004 found only two huts that had not been removed. Alberta Environment staff, with the assistance of local residents, pulled these to shore for removal.

Orphan Well Association
The Orphan Well Fund is a joint industry-government initiative funded by the oil and gas industry through an annual levy to remediate or reclaim orphaned well sites. The Orphan Well Association administers the fund.

Alberta Environment provides assistance to the Orphan Well Association by confirming which sites are orphans. In 2002-2003, Alberta Environment issued 70 Environmental Protection Orders to these orphan wells and sites. Once these orders lapsed into non-compliance, it allowed the Orphan Well Association the legal ability to start doing reclamation and remediation work.

Crime Stoppers Partnership
In 2002, Alberta Environment teamed with Crime Stoppers to develop an initiative that encourages Albertans to report any environmental infractions on the Crime Stoppers Hotline. Segments have aired on television to aid in the solving of specific investigations. Tips given to Crime Stoppers are eligible for rewards.

This partnership, offering a combination of educational and deterrent activities, allows for the re-enactments of an offence, and the offer of anonymity or monetary reward in exchange for information. The public appeals will serve to raise awareness that the department is working in the best interest of Albertans by involving the public in solving environmental crimes.