Handling excess soil

About excess soil

What is excess soil and why is it important?

Excess soil is soil that has been dug up, typically during construction activities. It must be moved off-site because it can't or won't be reused at the development site.

An estimated 25 million cubic metres of excess soil is generated in Ontario every year. While most excess soil can be reused safely, some excess soil may have limited levels of contaminants and care must be taken when determining where it may be reused. This is a significant concern in urban centres and surrounding communities (including suburban municipalities, rural areas and Indigenous communities).

Improper management of excess soil can negatively affect ground or surface water quality and/or quantity in natural areas and agricultural lands. It is also associated with local issues like noise, dust, truck traffic, road damage, erosion, drainage and other social, economic, health and environmental concerns.

Local reuse and proper management and tracking of excess soil has many benefits including:

• significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transporting soil
• reducing illegal dumping and inappropriate relocation
• decreasing road damage
• decreasing amount of healthy soil going to landfill
• cost savings associated with decreases in transportation and landfilling of excess soil

New regulation

The following section provides an overview of the new excess soil regulation and supporting regulatory amendments, reuse rules, as well as a key tool to support the development of site-specific standards at a reuse site. We are making it easier for excess soil to be managed locally and safely, as committed to in the Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan.

As part of this regulatory package, amendments have also been made to the Record of Site condition regulation, to remove unnecessary barriers to redevelop and revitalize vacant lands called brownfields and put them back to good use.

Excess soil regulation and regulatory amendments

In December 2019, MECP released a new regulation under the Environmental Protection Act, titled “On-Site and Excess Soil Management” to support improved management of excess construction soil. These changes reduce soil management costs, while protecting human health and the environment.

This regulation is a key step to support proper management of excess soils, ensuring valuable resources don’t go to waste and to provide clear rules on managing and reusing excess soil. New risk-based standards referenced by this regulation help to facilitate local beneficial reuse which in turn will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from soil transportation, while ensuring strong protection of human health and the environment.

Key elements of the regulation include:

• clear excess soil reuse rules and clarity around when excess soil is not a waste
• clarifies when excess soil can be reused and replaces or simplifies waste-related approvals with regulatory rules for low-risk soil management activities
• enhance reuse through improved reuse planning for larger (greater than 2000 cubic metres) and riskier sites (e.g. gas stations and industrial sites), including tracking, registration, an assessment of past uses, and if necessary, soil sampling and characterization
• greater assurance that reuse sites are not receiving waste soil and requiring larger reuse sites (10,000 cubic metres) to register and develop procedures to track and inspect soil received
• restrictions on landfilling clean soil that is suitable for reuse at a sensitive site (e.g., school, agricultural site)

The new regulation is being phased in over time, as follows:

• January 1, 2021: reuse rules, including risk-based standards, waste designation and approvals
• January 1, 2022: testing, tracking and registration
• January 1, 2025: restrictions on landfilling soils
• grandfathering provisions - applicable from January 1, 2021 to January 1, 2026, to recognize where work to be done is already stipulated in a contract

The Decision Note is now posted on the Environmental Registry of Ontario.

Rules for soil management and excess soil standards

A document entitled “Rules for Soil Management and Excess Soil Quality Standards” includes both “Soil Rules” and “Excess Soil Standards” which are incorporated by reference into the excess soil regulation and must be read alongside the regulation.

It contains rules related to the following key elements:

• assessments of past uses, sampling and analysis plans, excess soil characterization reports and excess soil destination assessment reports
• soil storage and processing
• requirements for excess soil tracking systems
• applicable soil quality standards and related reuse rules

Beneficial Reuse Assessment Tool (BRAT)

The Beneficial Reuse Assessment tool (BRAT) has been developed to allow for the development of site-specific standards at a reuse site. Development of site-specific standards aims to promote greater reuse of excess soil through consideration of local conditions, while protecting human health and the environment. The BRAT has been developed by the ministry to allow a qualified person to generate site-specific standards in a streamlined way using a spreadsheet model. Under the regulation, site-specific standards may also be developed using other types of risk assessments. Details on the BRAT and development of site-specific standards are outlined in the Soil Rules and the BRAT User Guide.

Other resources for dealing with excess soil

Management of Excess Soil – A Guide for Best Management Practices

Our excess soil best management practices guide explains how to manage excess soil once dug up, during the transportation of the soil, and at the site where the soil can be reused.

Canadian Urban Institute municipal by-law language tool

The Canadian Urban Institute’s site alteration by-law language tool provides flexibility for local decision making and site-specific considerations when incorporating best management practices. It provides examples of language and guidance for Ontario municipalities to consider when creating or updating by-laws.

Fact sheet for importing soil onto agricultural land

The Importation of Soil onto Agricultural Land fact sheet provides a brief overview of regulatory requirements, best management practices and guidance to help farmers limit impacts to farmland.

Excess Soil Policies in Provincial Plans

A Place to Grow: Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, the Greenbelt Plan, and the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan contain excess soil policies developed in 2017, for more information visit Land Use Planning.

Rationale Document for Development of Excess Soil Quality Standards

MECP has developed a series of tables of generic excess soil quality standards to enable the reuse of excess soil along with associated rules for the application of these standards at a site at which excess soil is used for a beneficial purpose. This rationale document provides an overview of how the standards were derived, associated assumptions and placement considerations for reuse of excess soil.