Land Remediation

Definitions

A number of the definitions below have been adopted and modified from the Environmental Management Act and its regulations. The current legislation and regulations should be consulted for complete information.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A
	absolute liability	Liability in which there is no defense of due diligence.
	active - assessment complete	A Site Registry status code that means a site (or area of concern at a site) has been investigated sufficiently to allow a decision about whether remediation is needed. As well, enough information is present to support any recommended remedial approach.
	active - remediation complete	A Site Registry status code that means cleanup is under the risk assessment / risk management approach — that is, all risk management works at the site have been constructed, appropriate permits and approvals have been obtained, official sign-off has been issued, and requirements such as treatment, monitoring, or maintenance are ongoing. This code is also sometimes applied to sites where cleanup has been completed under the numerical standards approach.
	active - under assessment	A Site Registry status code that means a site is undergoing or requires an environmental investigation.
	active - under remediation	A Site Registry status code that means a remediation plan for a site has been developed and accepted by the ministry (and may even already be implemented) or that remediation is known by the ministry to be occurring at the site. No information, however, has been submitted to or obtained by the ministry to indicate that remediation is complete.
	advanced exploration sites	Mine sites where mineral or coal exploration has been carried out and bulk samples have been removed or bedrock or coal has been excavated for mine development (definition subject to quantity limits described in the Contaminated Sites Regulation).
	agricultural land use	The use of land (under the Contaminated Sites Regulation) for the primary purpose of producing agricultural products for human or animal consumption. Agricultural lands may support livestock-raising operations, croplands, orchards, pastures, greenhouses, plant nurseries or farms.
	aliphatic	An organic chemical compound in which carbon atoms are joined by single bonds in straight or branched chains.
	alkane	An organic chemical compound that contains only carbon-to-carbon single bonds. Also referred to as "saturated".
	alkene	An organic chemical compound that contains at least one carbon-to-carbon double bond.
	Approval in Principle	A legal instrument under the Environmental Management Act, issued by a Director, stating that a remediation plan for a contaminated site has been reviewed and approved by the Director. The Approval in Principle may specify conditions that must be implemented during remediation.
	Approved Professional	A person who is appointed by a Director to the Roster of Approved Professionals. Under the Environmental Management Act, ministry officials may issue, based on the recommendation of these Approved Professionals, a contaminated sites legal instrument (such as a Certificate of Compliance) without review. Since November 1, 2004, the ministry has required that all applications for various services for non high risk sites be made by an Approved Professional.
	aquatic life water use	The use of water as habitat for any component of the freshwater or marine aquatic ecosystem, including phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthos, macrophytes and fish.
	aromatic hydrocarbon	A hydrocarbon, the molecular structure of which, incorporates one or more sets of six carbon atoms in a plane that is connected as if it consisted of alternating single and double carbon — carbon bonds.
	authorization	Permission from a government body.
	available funds	The net realizable value of a trust property, with some exclusions described in the Contaminated Sites Regulation section 27 (1).
B
	background concentration	The concentration of a substance in an environmental medium in a geographic area excluding any contribution from local human-made point sources.
	bioaccumulative substances	Substances with any of the following: • bioaccumulation factors (BAF) greater than 5,000; • bioconcentration factors (BCF) greater than 5,000; or • log octanol-water partition coefficients (log K_OW) greater than 5.
	brownfield	Abandoned, vacant, derelict or under-utilized commercial and industrial properties where past actions have resulted in actual or perceived contamination and where there is an active potential for redevelopment.
	burden of proof	The duty to disprove disputed facts. In the case of contaminated sites, a person seeking to establish that he or she is not responsible for remediation must prove all elements of the exemption.
C
	carcinogenic	A substance that causes cancer.
	Certificate of Compliance	A certificate, issued by a Director under the Environmental Management Act, stating that a site has been remediated in accordance with the standards prescribed for the use of the site and with any orders issued, any remediation plan approved by the Director, and any requirements imposed by the Director. If he or she sees fit, the Director may impose conditions as part of the certificate, such as monitoring or financial security. Certificates of Compliance may be issued using risk-based or numerical standards.
	chlorinated hydrocarbons	Compounds containing chlorine, carbon and hydrogen. Chlorinated hydrocarbons are contained in organochlorine pesticides, industrial chemicals and chlorine waste products, and include PCBs, dioxins and DDT. Many of these substances persist in the environment and bioaccumulate in the food chain. Human exposure to chlorinated hydrocarbons has been associated with suppression of the immune system and cancer.
	commercial land use	The use of land (under the Contaminated Sites Regulation) for the primary purpose of buying, selling or trading merchandise or services. Commercial lands include those occupied by shopping malls, office complexes, restaurants, hotels, motels, grocery stores, automobile service stations, petroleum distribution operations, municipal yards, warehouses, law courts, museums, churches, golf courses, government offices, air and sea terminals, bus and railway stations and storage associated with these uses.
	confirmation of remediation report	A report indicating that sample concentrations taken after remediation are below the environmental quality standards of the Contaminated Sites Regulation.
	contaminated site	An area of the land in which the soil or any groundwater lying beneath it, or the water or the underlying sediment, contains (a) a hazardous waste, or (b) another prescribed substance in quantities or concentrations exceeding risk based or numerical criteria or standards or conditions in the Contaminated Sites Regulation.
	contaminated sites legal regime	Collectively, the documents that allow the ministry to legally regulate the investigation and remediation of contaminated sites in B.C. The contaminated sites legal regime is made up of the Environmental Management Act, the Contaminated Sites Regulation and a number of protocols.
	Contaminated Soil Relocation Agreement	A legal agreement required when soil is to be moved from one site (the source site) to another (the receiving site). It is an agreement between the owner of a source site, the owner or operator of a receiving site, and is signed by the Director.
	contamination	The presence in soil, sediment, water or groundwater of a hazardous waste or another substance listed in the Contaminated Sites Regulation in quantities or concentrations that exceed risk based on numerical criteria, standards or conditions of the Contaminated Sites Regulation.
	covenant	A legal instrument registered under a given title to land and which is enforceable against the covenanter and his or her successors. Under the Land Title Act, a section 219 covenant may be of a negative or positive nature and may include provisions that restrict the use of the land, the development of the land, the use of buildings on the land, or subdivision of the land. Such a covenant may also require that the land be protected or rent be paid.
	Crown land	Land owned by the Crown — in effect, the "state". Also known as public lands. Examples of Crown land include Aboriginal reserves, national and provincial parks and the properties controlled by the Canadian Forces. Most Crown land, however, is wilderness available for lease by private corporations (mostly for resource extraction) or by individuals.
	CS e-link	The e-mail service of the ministry's Land Remediation Section used to make announcements on contaminated sites issues and to inform subscribers about developments in contaminated sites management in the province, and about other contaminated sites resources and references available on the internet.
D
	decommission	To treat soil or remove or deconstruct process equipment, buildings or storage tanks in order to stop or reduce a significant portion of the operations at a site or to significantly change the use of the site.
	dense non-aqueous phase liquid	A liquid that is denser than water and does not dissolve in water. In the presence of water it forms a separate lower phase. Many chlorinated solvents, such as trichlorotheylene, are dense non-aqueous phase liquids.
	detailed site investigation	Part of the site investigation process, required after a preliminary site investigation if more information is needed. Investigators conduct more detailed work to determine the location, extent and impact of contamination. The information gathered is usually sufficient to allow for the development of a remediation plan or a human health or environmental risk assessment.
	deterministic risk assessment	A method of risk assessment in which terms in the exposure models are conservative single-point estimates. The model outputs are single numbers that can be directly compared with regulatory standards.
	Director	The Director of Waste Management.
	Director of Waste Management	A person employed by the Province of British Columbia and designated in writing by the Minister of Environment as a Director of Waste Management or as an acting deputy or assistant Director of Waste Management under the Environmental Management Act. With some limits, a Director may delegate any of his or her powers, duties or functions — except the power to establish protocols — to another person.
	Director's interim standards	Regulations made by a Director that create substances and risk-based or numerical criteria, standards and conditions in relation to the definition of "contaminated site". Director's interim standards cease to have effect one year after the date they were made.
	discharge	To release waste into any environmental medium from a point source. The term usually refers to the release of liquid waste into a body of water (such as occurs with a pump and treat system for groundwater), and it can also refer to the release of air emissions.
	dispose	To discharge, deposit, inject, dump, spill, leak or place waste into any environmental medium.
	due diligence	In the case of negotiations related to the sale of property, the responsibility of prospective purchasers and their advisors to try to learn as much as possible about the property before committing funds to buy it. Exercising this responsibility involves a process of searches, investigations and reviews that may be carried out by lawyers, clients and other advisors as part of a potential business transaction.
E
	easement	The right to use the land of another for a special purpose. Unlike a lease, an easement does not give the holder a right of possession of the property, only a right of use.
	environmental media	Soil, sediments, surface water, groundwater and air.
	exploration sites	Mine sites where mineral or coal exploration has been carried out, no bulk samples have been taken, and no bedrock has been excavated for mine development (definition subject to quantity limits described in the Contaminated Sites Regulation).
	exposure pathway	The path from source of substance to receptor.
	exposure zone	The zone in which receptors may come in contact with substances.
	external contract review	Review of a report by a qualified consultant who is external to the ministry who is hired on contract by the ministry.
F
	financial security	A tool used by the ministry to manage the financial risks that may be associated with contaminated sites. Financial risk to the Province can result if there is a possibility of the Province incurring contaminated site remediation costs for the protection of the environment or human health, or for the restoration or remediation of the environment.
G
	generic numerical standards	The concentration of a substance in the Contaminated Sites Regulation for a particular soil (Schedule 4 or 10), water (Schedule 6 or 10), or sediment (Schedule 9) use.
	guidance	Advice provided to stakeholders to explain the Land Remediation Section's administrative and technical requirements in addition to those already required under the Environmental Management Act, its regulations, protocols, policies and procedures.
H
	halogenated methane	A chemical compound with one carbon atom and that has a halogen atom (bromine, chlorine, iodine, fluorine) and one to three hydrogen atoms.
	hazard index	The sum of hazard quotients for any substance over all exposure pathways.
	hazard quotient (HQ)	The result determined from the equation HQ = EDI/RfD where EDI is the estimated daily intake for any substance having non-carcinogenic deleterious effects, and RfD is the reference dose: an estimate of the maximum daily exposure level to a substance that is unlikely to produce an appreciable risk of non-carcinogenic deleterious effects during a lifetime of exposure to that substance.
	hazardous waste	Includes dangerous goods, PCB wastes, biomedical wastes, wastes containing dioxin, waste oil, waste asbestos, waste pest control products and containers, leachable toxic waste, waste containing tetrachloroethylene, and waste containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (abbreviated definition, for the full definition see Section 1 of the Hazardous Waste Regulation).
	heavy extractable petroleum hydrocarbons	Non-volatile hydrocarbons that contain 20 - 32 carbon atoms.
	high risk	The high probability that significant adverse effects on human health or the environment will occur now or in the future.
	historic mine site	A mine site where the ground has been disturbed or excavated to produce minerals or coal, but for which there is no permit under the Mines Act for operation and no owner or operator is taking responsibility for contamination at the site.
	hydrocarbon	A chemical compound consisting only of carbon and hydrogen.
I
	immunity	Exemption from legal requirements, penalties or payments, granted by authorities or statutes.
	inactive - no further action	A Site Registry status code that means a site may not have gone through the entire remediation process, but the ministry currently requires no additional information or action; or that the site may have been remediated by the site owner or operator through independent remediation, but formal confirmation of remediation has not been provided by the ministry.
	inactive - remediation complete	A Site Registry status code that means official sign-off by the ministry has occurred and no Environmental Management Act permits, orders or other requirements (such as monitoring, treatment or maintenance of works) exist.
	indemnity	The act of granting someone protection from any losses that have occurred or will occur.
	independent remediation	Remediation carried out without any ministry involvement other than the party doing the remediation notifying the ministry of initiation and completion.
	industrial land use	The use of land (under the Contaminated Sites Regulation) for the primary purpose of conducting industrial manufacturing and assembling processes. Industrial land may, for example, be occupied by factories, metal foundries, wood treatment facilities, mines, refineries, hydroelectric dams, metal smelters, automotive assembly plants, rail car or locomotive maintenance facilities, railcars, non-retail breweries and bakeries, roads and highways, wastewater and sewage treatment plants, electrical transformer stations and salvage yards.
	innocent acquisition	A term, used in reference to liability, describing an owner who purchased a site without the knowledge that it was contaminated.
	inorganic	Any chemical compound that does not contain a carbon-hydrogen bond (although the line between what is organic and what is inorganic is debated; see organic).
	interim standards	Environmental quality standards that a Director has the legal power to adopt when he or she chooses. Such a standard has the same legal effect as a standard set out in a schedule in the regulation, but it must be adopted in regulation after one year or it becomes void.
	irrigation water use	The use of water for the purpose of producing hay, forage crops, pasture cereal crops, vegetables or fruit.
J
	joint and separate liability	See joint and several liability.
	joint and several liability	Liability in which one or more responsible persons is liable to pay the entire cleanup cost, if other responsible persons cannot or will not pay their share.
L
	leachate	Liquids that have percolated through soil or other solid material carrying away substances in solution or suspension.
	legal instrument	Any written legal document. In the contaminated sites legal regime, Certificates of Compliance, Approvals in Principle, and Voluntary Remediation and Contaminated Soil Relocation Agreements are examples of legal instruments.
	letter of comfort	A letter or other notice issued by the ministry before July 1, 1995, indicating that the remediation of a site met the ministry's requirements at that time.
	lien	A property right that remains attached to an object (such as land) that has been sold until complete payment for the purchase has been made.
	light extractable petroleum hydrocarbons	Non-volatile hydrocarbons that contain 10 - 19 carbon atoms.
	light non-aqueous phase liquid	A liquid that is less dense than water and immiscible. In the presence of water, it forms a separate phase above.
	livestock water use	The use of water for consumption by livestock.
M
	manifest	Under the Hazardous Waste Regulation, a document required to document the transport of hazardous waste.
	matrix numerical soil standards	Environmental quality standards under Schedule 5 of the Contaminated Sites Regulation that separate human health and environmental protection requirements. They are calculated for various site-specific factors. Those for human health protection address the ingestion of soil and groundwater used for drinking water. Those for environmental protection address the protection of soil invertebrates and plants; livestock ingesting soil and fodder; soil microbes; and groundwater used for aquatic life, livestock watering, and irrigation.
	minor contributor	One or more responsible persons who have demonstrated that: • only a minor portion of the contamination present at a site can be attributed to them; • joint and separate liability would be unduly harsh; and • either no remediation would be required as a result of the contamination that they contributed or the cost of the remediation for the contamination they are responsible for would be minor.
N
	non-threshold contaminants	Contaminants for which it is assumed there is some probability of harm to human health at any level of exposure. For such substances, it is not possible to determine a dose below which adverse effects may not occur.
	notation	An entry in the Site Registry about a legal or administrative action occurring under the Province's contaminated sites legal regime.
	notification of independent remediation	A notice in writing issued by a person to a Director promptly once the person has initiated independent remediation, and within 90 days of completing independent remediation.
	notification of offsite migration	Written notification by a responsible person to the person or persons who own neighbouring sites and to a Director regarding migration or likely migration of contamination.
	numerical standards	Environmental quality standards the Contaminated Sites Regulation which consist of concentrations of substances in soil, surface water, groundwater, and sediments use to define when a site is contaminated and when remediation of a site is acceptable. Numerical standards include generic numerical standards (soil and water), matrix numerical soil standards, generic sediment criteria, Director's interim standards, and site-specific numerical standards.
O
	offsite migration	The migration of contaminants or other substances from a source site to a neighbouring site (an affected site) and where the source site and neighbouring site have different ownership or tenure.
	opt out option	An option available to municipalities to become exempt from the requirement to administer the site profile system.
	order	A formal written direction by a Director. Under the contaminated sites legal regime, a Director may issue an order of remediation, a site profile order, a site investigation order, a pollution abatement order or a pollution prevention order.
	organic chemical	Any chemical compound that contains a carbon-hydrogen bond (although the line between what is organic and what is inorganic is debated; see inorganic).
	orphan site	A site for which: • a responsible person cannot be found or is not willing or financially able to carry out remediation in period specified by a Director; or • a government body has become the owner after the failure of the former owner or other responsible person to comply with a requirement to carry out remediation at the site.
	ownership interest	A fee simple interest or a licence of occupation, lease, or similar form of tenure on real property, with a term of at least 30 years. Ownership interest does not include an interest in the nature of a mortgage, a right-of-way, a tenure, a lien, a judgement, an interest in real property that deals exclusively with subsurface rights, an option to purchase, an equitable charge, a restrictive covenant, or a right to purchase an ownership interest.
P
	parcel	A piece of property under one legal description.
	permit	An authorization under the Environmental Management Act that allows the introduction of waste into the environment.
	pesticide	A micro-organism or material that is represented, sold, used, or intended to be used to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate a pest. A pesticide may be a plant growth regulator, plant defoliator, or plant desiccant; a control product as defined in the Pest Control Products Act; or a substance that is classified as a pesticide by regulation.
	phenolic substances	Chemical compounds that have a hydroxyl group (-OH) attached to a carbon atom in an aromatic hydrocarbon.
	phthalate esters	A group of chemical compounds used mainly as plasticizers
	policy	A written governing principle, position, plan or course of action that directs, guides or influences decision-making and the actions of staff.
	polluter pays principle	The idea that liability for contamination should fall on those who are responsible for the contamination. This includes not only those people who actually discharged contaminants, but also those who contributed directly or indirectly to the contamination.
	pollution abatement order	An order by a Director requiring a person to reduce, control or stop pollution caused by a substance.
	pollution prevention order	An order by a Director requiring a person to prevent pollution from an activity or operation that has been (or is being performed) in a manner that is likely to release a polluting substance.
	polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons	Chemical compounds that consist of fused aromatic rings, do not have any atoms other than carbon and hydrogen and do not carry any substituents.
	preliminary site investigation	An assessment of the probability of site contamination. A preliminary site investigation involves searching existing records for information about a site; interviewing people who are or have been involved with the site; and determining the general location and degree of any contamination.
	procedure	Guidance to ministry decision-makers and staff in performing their duties.
	producing mine	As defined in the Contaminated Sites Regulation, a mine with a Mines Act permit that has produced, or is producing, more than 1,000 tonnes of mineral containing bedrock, more than 50,000 tonnes of coal, or more than 200,000 tonnes of total material, including coal.
	protected person	All of the following: the government, the Minister, a municipality, a current or former approving officer, a current or former elected official of the government, a current or former municipal public officer, or a current or former civic public officer.
	protocol	A document containing legally enforceable contaminated sites requirements issued by the Director under the authority of section 64 of the Environmental Management Act. Typically the requirements relate to investigations, analysis, interpretation, planning, conducting and reporting on remediation.
R
	receiver	A person appointed by a court to manage the affairs of a bankrupt business or person or to care for property in litigation.
	receiving site	The site to which soil is or will be relocated under Contaminated Soil Relocation Agreement.
	receptor	Species, population, community, habitat, etc. that may be exposed to contaminants.
	remediation	Action to eliminate, limit, correct, counteract, mitigate, or remove any contaminant from the environment or the adverse effects of any contaminant on the environment or human health. Remediation may include: site investigation, analysis, and interpretation; evaluation of methods of remediation; preparation and implementation of a remediation plan; and monitoring, verification, and confirmation of whether the remediation efforts comply with the remediation plan, applicable standards, and requirements imposed by a Director under the Environmental Management Act.
	remediation order	A legal order issued by a Director to remediate a site.
	remediation plan	As defined under the Contaminated Sites Regulation, plans and other information describing the activities to be undertaken to remediate a contaminated site.
	rescind	To abrogate or cancel a contract, putting the parties in the same position they would have been in had there been no contract.
	residential land use	The use of land (under the Contaminated Sites Regulation) for the primary purpose of a residence by people on a permanent, temporary, or seasonal basis. Examples of residences are single family dwellings, cabins, apartments, condominiums, townhouses and institutional facilities such as schools, hospitals, daycare operations, community centres, prisons, and correctional centres.
	responsible person	A person who is held responsible for cleaning up a contaminated site. A responsible person may be a current owner or operator of a site, a previous owner or operator of a site, a producer or transporter of a substance that caused contamination, or the responsible person of an adjacent site from which a substance migrated.
	restrictive covenant	A legal instrument registered under a given title to the land and enforceable against the covenanter and his or her successors. A section 219 covenant under the Land Title Act may be of a negative or positive nature and may include provisions that restrict the use of the land, the development of the land, the use of buildings on the land, or the subdivision of the land. It may also require that land be protected or that a rent fee be paid.
	retroactive liability	Liability in which a responsible person is liable for cleanup of contamination that occurred in the past.
	right-of-way	An easement, statutory right-of-way, or limited interest in an area of land, or a license or permit that grants a non-owner the right to construct, operate or maintain works on, over or under an area of land.
	risk assessment	The systematic process of identifying and evaluating potentially harmful substances and people's exposures to them in order to estimate cancer risks or hazard indices.
	risk-based standards	Acceptable levels of risk from exposure to substances at sites where contamination is contained and managed onsite.
	risk management	Actions, including monitoring, designed to prevent or mitigate risks to human health or the environment from contamination at a site.
S
	Schedule 2 activity	Any of a number of commercial and industrial activities and uses associated with potential contamination of a site, as listed in Schedule 2 of the Contaminated Sites Regulation.
	screening level risk assessment	A simple analysis of exposure pathways and receptors to assess whether contamination at a specific site poses acceptable risks to human health and the environment.
	secured creditor	A person who holds a mortgage, charge, debenture, hypothecation or other security interest in property at a contaminated site.
	security	Something deposited (often a sum of money) or given as assurance of the fulfillment of an obligation.
	sediment	Particulate material that usually lies below water.
	sensitive sediment use	The use of a site containing sediment to provide habitat for sensitive components of freshwater, marine, or estuarine aquatic ecosystems. Examples of sensitive components are phytoplankton, benthos, macrophytes, and fish. Areas of sensitive sediment use include: • habitats used by endangered or threatened species or species of special concern; • watercourses, wetlands, forested riparian areas, mudflats and intertidal zones that are important to the preservation of fish and wildlife; • reaches of aquatic habitats that are important to fish spawning or serve as important rearing habitat for fish; • reaches of aquatic environments that encompass or border habitat compensation or restoration sites or other areas that are designed to create, restore or enhance biological or habitat features; and • areas and aquatic habitat included in wildlife management areas.
	site investigation	The key means of gathering information to determine whether a site is contaminated.
	site plan	A graphic representation of the footprint of a site. Most contaminated sites legal instruments issued by the ministry contain a site plan.
	site profile	A screening form in Schedule 1 of the Contaminated Sites Regulation for identifying potentially contaminated sites. The profile is a summary created from readily available information about a site, and includes a basic description of the site and of its past and present uses.
	site profile received	A Site Registry status code that means a site profile has been entered into the Site Registry but, to the ministry's knowledge, no site investigation or remediation has been done.
	Site Registrar	The person appointed by the Minister of Environment to manage the Site Registry.
	Site Registry	An electronic database created in 1997 under the contaminated sites legal regime to document milestones in the screening, identification, and cleanup of all sites in the ministry's records.
	site-specific numerical standards	Environmental quality standards under the Contaminated Sites Regulation usually calculated for each site using the same equations developed to derive the matrix numerical standards or sediment criteria. These standards do not appear in any table in the Regulation, but are calculated for each site.
	soil	Unconsolidated mineral or organic material, rock, fill and sediment deposited on land. Soil does not include sewage sludge, composted organic material or any products of these.
	soil received	A Site Registry status code that indicates that a Contaminated Soil Relocation Agreement under the Environmental Management Act has been finalized, and that a site has received (or will receive) soil under that agreement.
	source site	The site from which soil is to be relocated under a Contaminated Soil Relocation Agreement.
	stage 1 preliminary site investigation	The first part of a preliminary site investigation which involves a review of historical use and records, one or more reconnaissance visits with visual inspection, interviews, any information as to which substances on the site may cause contamination, and any other tasks described in a Director's protocol.
	stage 2 preliminary site investigation	The second part of a preliminary site investigation which involves determination of the general location and degree of any contamination. Activities include sampling of relevant environmental media, laboratory or field instrumental analysis, use of other methods of investigating subsurface conditions, assessment of substance concentrations relative to standards, and any other tasks described in a Director's protocol.
	standard	A legally enforceable environmental quality benchmark. Provincial environmental quality standards for contaminated sites appear in the Contaminated Sites Regulation in schedules 4 - 7 and 9 -10.
	status codes	Administrative labels the ministry assigns to each site based on existing notations, documents, and other legal information. The codes are used to assist ministry staff in the internal tracking of assessment or remediation activity at a site. The codes are not legal terms or definitive assessments that describe remediation at a site.
	stochastic risk assessment	A method of risk assessment in which terms are entered into the exposure models as distributors of probable values. The models then output probability distributions of adverse effect from the exposure.
	Superfund	The United States federal government's program to clean up the nation's uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Through the Superfund program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its partners address abandoned, accidentally spilled, or illegally dumped hazardous waste that poses current or future threats to human health or the environment.
	surety	The person who pledges to pay back money or perform a certain action if the principal to a contract fails to meet the conditions of the original contract.
T
	threshold contaminants	Contaminants for which a concentration may be set to indicate the limit at which no adverse effects are expected to be produced receptors.
	toxicologist	A person who studies the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms, including the poisoning of people.
	trustee	Someone legally appointed to manage the affairs of a person unable or unwilling to do so.
	typical sediment use	Under the Contaminated Sites Regulation, the use of a site containing sediment for a use that is not a sensitive sediment one.
U
	unknown status	A Site Registry status code that means a site is known to the ministry, but not its status. This can occur because of circumstances such as lack of reporting.
	urban park land use	The use of urban land (under the Contaminated Sites Regulation) for the primary purpose of outdoor recreation. Such land may be occupied by municipal parks, fairgrounds, sports field, rifle ranges, captive wildlife parks, biking and hiking areas, community beaches and picnic areas. Urban park land use does not include "wildlands" such as ecological reserves, national or provincial parks, protected wetlands or woodlands, native forests, tundra or alpine meadows.
V
	vadose zone	The zone between the land's surface and the water table within which the moisture content is less than saturation (except in the capillary fringe) and the pressure is less than atmospheric.
	vapour attenuation factor	A factor used to calculate potential vapour concentrations. It takes into account how much of the vapour will dissipate.
	vapour intrusion	The migration of volatile or semi-volatile chemicals from contaminated groundwater, soil or sediment into nearby buildings.
	vesting order	An order given by the court, granting a person title, possession or control of a particular property.
	volatile petroleum hydrocarbons	Hydrocarbons found in petroleum that have enough vapour pressures under normal conditions to significantly vaporize and enter the atmosphere.
	Voluntary Remediation Agreement	A contaminated sites legal instrument between a responsible person and the Director of Waste Management, in which the person commits to independently undertaking remediation to address contamination at a site. The agreement includes provisions for financial contribution and security, a schedule of remediation, certification by the responsible person of full disclosure of information, and any other requirements the director considers necessary.
W
	wide area site	A designation made by the Director of Waste Management to indicate a site that covers an extensive geographic area and is made up of numerous individual properties, many of which would likely be determined as contaminated sites based on specified substances and sources.
	wildlife corridor	A strip-like area made up of connected segments of undeveloped land to accommodate wildlife movement and survival. A corridor may consist of aboveground utility rights-of-way, hedges, vegetated road rights-of-way and small, closely spaced areas.