Environmental consultants are alerted to an important recent development concerning Preliminary Site Investigations (PSIs).
A Site Registry search is now required as part of a Stage 1 PSI submitted to BC Environment for review under the Contaminated Sites Regulation. Section 58 (1) of the regulation was amended to clarify that a review of site historical use and records, which is one of several components of a first stage PSI, now includes a search of the Site Registry.
Thus BC Environment considers any stage 1 PSI inadequate, unless evidence of a Site Registry search is provided in the Stage 1 investigation report.
What is the Site Registry?
The Site Registry documents milestones in the site cleanup process, and provides public access to this information. It is not strictly a registry of contaminated sites. While some sites on the registry are contaminated, most sites listed have simply been investigated and require little, if any cleanup, or have already been cleaned up to government standards.
For more information on the Site Registry, consult 
fact sheet 20, "The Site Registry" in the "Facts on Contaminated Sites" series. There is also a Site Registry User's Guide available.
What is a Stage 1 Preliminary Site Investigation?
A Stage 1 PSI assesses the probability of site contamination through a search of archival records, site visits and knowledge of historical activities conducted on a site. It may be prompted, for example, by a site profile or other information regional ministry staff receive, or by a land owner deciding to develop some potentially contaminated land.
What Kind of Site Registry Report Should be Included in a Preliminary Site Investigation?
A search of the electronic site Registry should be made for a site or any part of a site by using the street address, PID, PIN or SITE ID number, and could also involve an area-based search if the other types of searches fail to identify a site on the registry.
A copy of the index results list and a site detail report for each site or part of the property under investigation should be included in the PSI report.
