Documents

Discussion Paper on Disposal at Sea Permit Fees for Dredging and Excavation Operations

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This paper discusses ways of modifying the permit fees to reduce the costs for clients that carry out routine dredging or excavation and to set a maximum level for the fees. The first proposal is the introduction of an annual fee cap for disposal at sea permits for maintenance dredging and excavation operations. A fee cap would require amendments to the Ocean Dumping Permit Fee Regulations (Site Monitoring) under the FAA and be subject to the formal regulatory process. The second proposal involves a multi-year permit fee for maintenance dredging and excavation. This would require amendments to CEPA 1999.

Report on Conultations on Cost Recovery Review and Boundaries of the Sea

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This document summarizes both the results of public meetings and written responses received during public consultations conducted by Environment Canada in 2002-2003. The consultations focused on two issues. First was a three year review of the disposal site monitoring fees charged for disposal at sea permits for dredged material and excavated till. The second was Environment Canada's proposal for a method to determine the landward boundaries of application of the disposal at sea provisions of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999.

Public Consultation Paper on Boundaries of the Sea for the Ocean Disposal Program

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This document outlines proposals for a process to be used in setting boundary lines between the sea and freshwater for the purposes of Environment Canada's Ocean Disposal Program. In particular this process will be considered as it applies to setting the boundary in major estuaries such as the Fraser River estuary in British Columbia, the Mackenzie River estuary in the North West Territories, and the Miramichi River estuary in New Brunswick. Consideration will also be given to how the process would work for areas of brackish water such as the Bras d'Or Lakes in Nova Scotia.

Public consultations occured in the winter 2003 and a consultation report is being prepared.

Review of the Monitoring Fee for the Disposal at Sea Program

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In 1999, Environment Canada implemented a permit fee for the disposal at sea of dredged and excavated material at a rate of $470 per 1,000 cubic metres. The fee was estimated to be the fair market value of the right or privilege of permitting access to suitable disposal sites under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999. A key commitment by Environment Canada to the regulated community was to review the fee three years after its implementation.

This paper was prepared for that review. It focuses on the issue of cost recovery through monitoring fees and presents an analysis of the fees paid, who paid them, how they have been spent, and an update on the costs of disposal site monitoring.

Public consultations occured in the winter 2003 and a consultation report is being prepared.

Disposal at Sea Regulations, August 15, 2001

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Regulations

The Disposal at Sea Regulations explain how to assess waste or other matter for disposal at sea. The Regulations also set out reporting requirements for an emergency disposal event.

Regulations Respecting Applications for Permits for Disposal at Sea, August 15, 2001

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Regulations

The Regulations Respecting Applications for Permits for Disposal at Sea seek to ensure that adequate and appropriate information is provided to allow Environment Canada to properly assess waste or other matter intended for disposal at sea as detailed in Schedule 6.

The form requests an identification of what is to be disposed, by whom, where, when, how and why. It requests a comparative assessment of alternatives to disposal at sea. It then requires the history of the load site and the chemical, physical and biological characteristics of the waste or other matter to be disposed of. The applicant must provide information on the location of the load site with respect to potential pollution sources and of the disposal site with respect to sensitive areas. The need for mitigation and timing restrictions are also identified.

Ocean Dumping Permit Fee Regulations (Site Monitoring) March 17, 1999

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Regulations

The purpose of the Ocean Dumping Permit Fee Regulations (Site Monitoring) under paragraph 19.1(a) of the Financial Administration Act (FAA), is to introduce a requirement for permittees who dispose of dredged or excavated material at sea to pay fees of $470 per thousand cubic meters authorized under the permit. The Disposal at Sea Program set the monitoring fee under the FAA in order to bring it into compliance with the Treasury Board policy on cost recovery.

Application Form

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A downloadable application form is available which can be completed using compatible word-processing software, printed out, and submitted with supporting documents to your nearest Program Office.

Alternatively, hard copies of the application form for a disposal at sea permit may be obtained from your nearest Regional Office.

Notice of Intent

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The application must contain proof that a notice of the application was published in a newspaper of general circulation in the vicinity of the proposed loading and disposal activities to satisfy CEPA.

Click on your preferred format to download a sample notice of intent.

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Click on your preferred format to download a sample permit and amendment as published in the Canada Gazette.

2002 Compendium

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2001 Compendium

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2000 Compendium

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1999 Compendium

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This report is prepared each year as part of Canada's obligations under the London Convention and to the regulated community paying the monitoring fee. It presents summary results for each of the representative disposal sites monitored during the previous calendar year. The information presented varies with the issues of concern for a given site and the parameters examined. Monitoring activities may include:

• physical surveillance of the sea floor at the site such as a video camera survey or sonar survey by remote submersible,
• sampling sediments to examine their properties and analyzing for the presence of chemical contaminants,
• sampling sediments to examine their biological properties and conduct toxicity tests,

Details can be found in the Monitoring section.

National Guidelines for Monitoring Dredged and Excavated Material at Ocean Disposal Sites (EPSM-386)

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The National Guidelines for Monitoring Dredged and Excavated Material at Ocean Disposal Sites provides advice to managers and professionals on developing and implementing monitoring projects at ocean disposal sites that receive dredged and excavated material. Issues discussed include:

• triggers to monitoring,
• developing monitoring plans,
• study design,
• data analysis, and
• biological assessment tools.

Technical Guidance for Physical Monitoring at Ocean Disposal Sites

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This document provides advice to managers and professionals on developing and implementing monitoring projects at ocean disposal sites that receive dredged and excavated material. Technical guidance is provided on:

• positioning equipment,
• sampling equipment,
• techniques for observing ocean disposal sites and defining their boundaries, and
• sediment transport models to predict short-term and long-term effects.

Guidance Document on the Collection and Preparation of Sediments for Physicochemical Characterization and Biological Testing (EPS 1/RM/29)

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This guidance document examines the technical considerations of sample collection, preparation, handling and statistical design of sampling programs.

CCME Protocol for the Derivatrion of Canadian Sediment Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Aquatic Life

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This document outlines the procedures for deriving scientifically sound national sediment quality guidelines for the protection of aquatic life. Introductory guidance is also provided on how these guidelines are intended to be used in conjunction with other types of information.

Canadian Sediment Quality Guidelines web site

Canadian Sediment Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Aquatic Life

CCME web site

Canadian sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) for the protection of aquatic life are developed for individual chemicals for both freshwater and marine (including estuarine) sediments by the Water Quality Guidelines Task Group of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME). Environment Canada's National Guidelines and Standards Office is the technical secretariat for the Task Group. These guidelines are numerical limits or narrative statements recommended to support and maintain aquatic life associated with bed sediments and are developed from the available scientific information on the biological effects of sediment-associated chemicals.

Pollution Gradient Study: Belledune, New Brunswick 1995

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Sediment bioassays are being used in ocean disposal permit assessment and disposal site monitoring for the identification of potential lethal, sublethal, and bioaccumulative effects. The battery of biological test methods used include lethal, sublethal, and bioaccumulation tests.

The study was conducted by Environment Canada to assess tools used for permit assessment. Five species of amphipods, three species of echinoid, two species of polychaete, one bivalve, and two tests using a photoluminescent bacterium were tested on sediments with varying levels of heavy metals. Test sediments were collected from three natural and two man-made stations from Belledune Harbour, New Brunswick. Biological testing, sediment chemistry, and benthic community structure analyses were carried out and relationships among these elements at these stations were examined.

Pollution Gradient Study: Sydney Harbour, Nova Scotia, 1997

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The study was conducted by Environment Canada to assess tools used for permit assessment. Biological toxicity tests, chemistry, and benthic community structure were examined along a known pollution gradient in Sydney Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada. Major contaminants were PAHs, PCBs, and heavy metals.