Waste Management Act – Contaminated Sites

Sites contaminated by past industrial and commercial activity can be a significant threat to biodiversity and fish habitat.  Soil and water at sites may contain substances that can poison plants and animals. Such sites may also release substances offsite that can injure fish or mammals, impair the reproduction of birds; and accumulate in the food web.

The Waste Management Act establishes a system for identifying contaminated sites, apportioning the costs of clean up among various land owners and other parties responsible for the contamination, and implementing remediation.  The Contaminated Sites Regulation fleshes out the Act and sets out standards for clean up of sites. 

Since it came into force in 1997, the Contaminated Sites system has been effective in cleaning up sites around the Province.  This has reduced toxic contamination of surface waters; however, the system is currently being reviewed by the provincial government and changes have been proposed which would reduce clean up standards and reduce funds available to pay for clean up (by restricting the financial responsibility of parties responsible for contamination).

 

Note: The Waste Management Act is currently under revision, and the system described on this page may change. 

Identifying a Contaminated Site

 

The Act sets out a series of steps whereby a property can be identified as a contaminated site:

 

·          Site Profiles – When certain major steps are taken by the owner of property, a mine or someone otherwise responsible for property  or of a mine, the owner may be required to prepare a “site profile” outlining aspects of the property’s history that may raise contamination issues.   The steps include application for a rezoning, subdivision, or development permit, sale of the property, and other circumstances required in the Act or the Contaminated Sites Regulation.

·          Site Investigation – If the Manager (an employee of the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection) decides that a property is likely to be contaminated, he or she can order the owner or operator of the property to conduct an investigation of that site at their own expense.

·          Determination – The Manager may determine that a site is contaminated on the basis of a site investigation by making a preliminary determination, hearing submissions from those who may have caused or are otherwise legally responsible for the contamination, and then finalizing the determination.  

 

The Act creates a Contaminated Site Registry in which all site profiles, site investigations and determinations are to be stored.  The registry is available, at a cost, through BC Online. 

 

Remediating a Contaminated Site

 

The Act sets out a list of people that will generally be responsible for remediating a contaminated site.  These include:

·          a current or previous owner or operator of the site;

·          a person who produced a substance, or who transported a substance to the site, and caused it to be disposed of or handled so that the contamination occurred;

·          a person who owns or operates (or has owned or operated) an adjacent property from which the contamination has spread (migrated); or

·          a secured creditor who required a substance to be handled in such a way that the site became contaminated.

However, a person (even one of the above) will not be responsible for remediation if they can show that they fall within one of the many exceptions.  These are too detailed to list here, but generally exclude individuals who were in no way responsible for the contamination. 

 

The Act then makes all “responsible parties” responsible for paying some or all of the costs of remediation, allowing a party who remediates a site to sue the responsible parties for the costs of remediation.  In addition, the Manager is given the power to:

·          Order a responsible party to remediate a site;

·          Identify parties who are “minor contributors” to the mediation, and limit their financial responsibility for the remediation;

·          Enter into a voluntary remediation agreement whereby a responsible party agrees to take on the remediation of the site;

·          Order a responsible party to consult the public or make a remediation plan available for public review; and

·          Issue a “Certificate of Compliance” indicating that a site has been remediated.

Although not often used, the power of the Manager to order a person to provide public notice of clean up plans and consult with the public on the content of those plans potentially provides community and environmental groups with an opportunity to provide input into specific plans.

 

Related Guide Pages:

·          Waste Management Act

For more information about Contaminated Sites:

·          An electronic copy of the Waste Management Act.

·          An electronic copy of the Contaminated Sites Regulation.

·          Contaminated Sites Page on the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection Website.

·          The About Remediation website.