*The following regulatory news article is intended to be an overview of the report, legislation or proposal, and not a replacement for the actual guidance or information from the government. For the comprehensive data, please visit the linked source material within the article
A new proposal from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks has entered a one-month public consultation for a series of amendments, including a push of the restriction date on landfilling certain types of excess soil by two years.
The ministry notes in the Environmental Registry of Ontario (ERO) posting that changing the landfilling restriction date from 2025 to 2027 is an effort to “alleviate stakeholders’ immediate concerns, prevent unintended cost or time from delayed projects due to misunderstanding the restriction, and allow the ministry more time for education and outreach efforts.”
The proposed amendment to O. Reg. 406/19 (the Excess Soil Regulation) will specifically allow more time to clarify the existing exception in subsection 22(3) that allows for landfilling of excess soil if a qualified person is of the opinion that it would be “unsafe to finally place the excess soil at a reuse site”.
Subscribe to our Newsletter!
The latest environmental engineering news direct to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.
According to the ERO listing, the qualified person would be required to make a declaration that:
The excess soil contains a parameter for which there is no applicable excess soil quality standard and there are reasonable grounds to surmise that the final placement of the excess soil at a reuse site may cause an adverse effect; the excess soil contains invasive species that should not be relocated; or, that reuse of the excess soil at a reuse site for structural purposes is not possible due to its geotechnical instability and a reuse site that may use the soil for other beneficial purposes has not been located after reasonable efforts.
“The proposed amendments aim to offer cost and time savings for municipalities, developers, and soil management businesses, by reducing burden and providing greater flexibility under the Excess Soil Regulation,” states the ERO notice.
Additional proposals in the latest ERO listing include the ability to exempt specified excess soil management sites from a waste environmental compliance approval (ECA) subject to rules; create enhanced reuse opportunities for aggregate and stormwater management pond sediment; allow greater reuse of soil to be coordinated between similar infrastructure projects; reduce reuse planning requirements for excess soil moved between infrastructure projects; allow in situ sampling for stormwater management pond sediment; and regional mapping of naturally occurring local background concentrations.
“We have heard from some stakeholders that a mapped approach may be useful for applying this deeming provision to enable greater reuse of excess soil as it would avoid site-by-site assessments,” states the ERO notice.
Consultation on the proposals is open until November 21, 2024.
