Authority: Environmental Management Act
Purpose of procedure:
This procedure is to provide a consistent method for staff to assign status codes in the creation of records for SITE and the Site Registry.
Relationship to previous procedure:
None
Issued by: Deputy Director
| Deputy Director's Approval: |
______________________________ |
Date:____________ |
| |
Environmental Management Branch |
|
1.0 Definitions:
Active -Under Assessment is a status code that means that a site is undergoing or requires an environmental investigation.
Active -Assessment Complete is a status code that means that a site, or an area of concern at a site, has been investigated sufficiently to decide if remediation is necessary, and if so, enough information is present to support any recommended remedial approach.
Active -Under Remediation is a status code that means that a remediation plan has been accepted by the ministry, developed and implemented at a site, or that remediation is known by ministry personnel to be occurring at the site. No information has been submitted to the ministry or provided by the ministry to verify that remediation is complete.
Active -Remediation Complete is a status code that means that either:
1. a) remediation is complete under the risk assessment/risk management remediation approach, risk management works have been constructed, all appropriate permits and approvals have been obtained,
b) a Letter of Comfort was issued before July 1, 1995, or a Confirmation of Compliance was issued before April 1, 1997, or a Certificate of Compliance was issued on or after July 1, 1995, or a Conditional Certificate of Compliance was issued on or after April 1, 1997, and
c) there are ongoing requirements such as treatment, monitoring or maintenance; or
2. a) remediation is complete under the contaminant concentration or numerical standards approach,
b) a Letter of Comfort was issued before July 1, 1995, or a Confirmation of Compliance was issued before April 1, 1997, or a Certificate of Compliance was issued on or after July 1, 1995, and
c) there are ongoing requirements such as treatment, monitoring or maintenance.
Inactive -No Further Action is a status code that means that:
1) a site may not have gone through the entire remediation process and that the ministry presently requires no additional information or action. Sites assigned this status may require assessment or remediation in the future; or
2) a site may be considered not to require further action or be considered remediated by the site owner or operator through independent remediation, but confirmation of remediation has not been provided by the ministry in:
a) a Letter of Comfort issued before July 1, 1995,
b) a Confirmation of Compliance issued before April 1, 1997;
c) a Certificate of Compliance issued on or after July 1, 1995; or
d) a Conditional Certificate of Compliance issued on or after April 1, 1997 with no ongoing requirements.
Inactive -Remediation Complete is a status code that means that:
1) a Letter of Comfort was issued before July 1, 1995, or a Confirmation of Compliance was issued before April 1, 1997, or a Certificate of Compliance was issued on or after July 1, 1995 or a Conditional Certificate of Compliance was issued on or after April 1, 1997; and
2) there are no outstanding Environmental Management Act permits or other requirements such as monitoring, treatment or maintenance of works.
Site Profile Received is a status code that means that a site profile has been received and entered into the system; however, no further action has taken place.
Soil Received is a status code that means 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 and is not under investigation or remediation.
Unknown Status is a status code that means that a site is known to exist by the ministry, but because of circumstances such as lack of reporting, the remedial status is unknown to the ministry.
Letter of Comfort means a letter or other notice issued by the ministry before July 1, 1995 which indicates that the remediation of a site met the ministry's requirements at that time.
Notation means a legal or administrative action under the Environmental Management Act as described in the document "Site Registry Notations."
Remediation means in this procedure the cleanup of contamination.
2.0 General:
The ministry's SITE system and Site Registry contain information on a site's status under the contaminated sites legislation and regulations. Administrative status codes have been developed to help ministry staff and Site Registry users quickly determine at what stage a site is in the investigation or remediation process.
In general there are three main status categories: active, inactive and unknown.
- An active status describes sites where there are current or ongoing remediation activities or requirements;
- An inactive status describes sites where at the time the status code was assigned there was no further activity required by the ministry; and
- An unknown status describes sites of which the ministry is aware, but has no clear information on past or current remediation activity.
Notations associated with a site are key to determining a site status code, as is provided in the definition of each code.
3.0 Procedure:
3.1 Ministry staff shall use the status codes and their definition in this procedure for assigning status codes in SITE and the Site Registry.
3.2 Ministry staff shall use the examples shown in Appendix 1 to guide their application of this procedure.
3.3 Ministry staff shall re-evaluate, and modify where appropriate, the status code for a site each time a notation is added to SITE or the Site Registry.
3.4 The status code "Site Profile Received" is automatically assigned to those sites that have been created by entering a site profile onto the system. This status code shall be reviewed after a decision has been made and communicated regarding the need for a site investigation, and then updated to either "Inactive-No Further Action" or "Active-Under Assessment" according to the above definitions.
3.5 The flow chart shown in Figure 1 shall be used as a guide to determining the sequence of assigning status codes.
3.6 Status codes containing "Remediation Complete" shall not be used for those sites where remediation did not occur.
APPENDIX 1
EXAMPLES OF APPLICATION OF STATUS CODES
Examples of Use of the Status Code "Active-Under Assessment"
