Vancouver Island Region EPD

Environmental Emergency Response

Vancouver Island Region receives more than 800 reports of dangerous goods spills annually from industry and the general public via the province's 24-hour emergency reporting phone number 1-800-663-3456. It is a requirement of the Environmental Management Act that a spiller or a person observing a spill report the incident to the 24-hour emergency number, which is manned by Provincial Emergency Program staff.

The Emergency Program Act and its Emergency Program Management Regulation (Schedule 1) specifies the Ministry of Environment as the lead provincial agency for response to spills of dangerous goods and hazardous materials.

The Ministry of Environment Act states that the ministry's environmental emergency mandate is (j) to plan for, co-ordinate, implement and manage a program to protect the welfare of the public in the event of an environmental emergency or disaster.

Emergency response within the Vancouver Island Region is coordinated by our Environmental Emergency Response Officers, who are trained in hazardous materials handling and emergency response, and available on a 7-day, 24-hour basis. The decision by an emergency response officer whether or not to attend the scene of an emergency, and their level of involvement, is based upon:

  1. the severity of the emergency,
  2. the capabilities of the spiller,
  3. the response of other agencies or jurisdictions, and
  4. the potential for adverse environmental impact.

For any environmental emergency which has the potential to impact public property or the environment, the role of the emergency response officer is to provide:

  1. direction on appropriate response, management, cleanup and environmental protection techniques,
  2. technical advice on the severity and hazard of the incident, and
  3. to ensure compliance with ministry environmental legislation.

The emergency response officer may take on-scene command or control of the emergency, or provide on-scene support in managing the emergency, where:

  1. a spiller, for whatever reason, does not or cannot carry out a timely and effective response, or
  2. where the ministry emergency response officer is first on-scene.

For further information, see the Provincial Emergency Program site.