The British Columbia government recently re-issued Administrative Bulletin 3 which prescribes the administrative process for legal instrument applications being submitted during the regulatory transition period ending October 31, 2017, when the new numerical standards under the Stage 10 Amendment to the Contaminated Sites Regulation (CSR) will come into force.
Legal instruments covered by Administrative Bulletin 3 include the following:
- Determinations of Contaminated Site (whether a site is contaminated or not);
- Approvals in Principle;
- Certificates of Compliance; and
- Contaminated Soil Relocation Agreements
The new CSR standards are those included in CSR B.C Reg. 375/96 including amendments up to B.C. Reg. 253/2016, October 27, 2016.
The Administrative Bulletin 3 bulletin applies to applications for legal instruments submitted to the Ministry of Environment (ENV) and to the Contaminated Sites Approved Professionals (CSAP) Society of British Columbia for high and non-high risk sites respectively. The CSAP Society of B.C. is an independent organization that accredits professionals to review environmental certification applications.
The B.C. Ministry of the Environment recently made available the PowerPoint presentations and audio recordings from webinars it hosted on the amendments to the Contaminated Site Regulation and how they impact stakeholders involved in contaminated sites.
Currently in B.C., there are over 14,000 contaminated sites being tracked in government records. This includes sites that are still going through the screening process (and are not yet confirmed as contaminated or not), sites being cleaned up, and sites confirmed as clean. Information on a specific site can be found by accesses the province’s database map of site investigations and clean-ups.
