| 2008 Environmental Compliance Summaries | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Air Emissions | Communal Sewage Discharges |
Industrial Sewage Discharges |
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| Excel | Excel | Excel | ||||
| Central | [Excel] | [PDF] | [Excel] | [PDF] | [Excel] | [PDF] |
| Eastern | [Excel] | [PDF] | [Excel] | [PDF] | [Excel] | [PDF] |
| Northern | [Excel] | [PDF] | [Excel] | [PDF] | [Excel] | [PDF] |
| South Western | [Excel] | [PDF] | [Excel] | [PDF] | [Excel] | [PDF] |
| West Central | [Excel] | [PDF] | [Excel] | [PDF] | [Excel] | [PDF] |
| All Regions | [Excel] | [PDF] | [Excel] | [PDF] | [Excel] | [PDF] |
2008 ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE REPORT TRENDS
For each sector, the number of facilities with exceedances is indicated in brackets beside the sector’s name.
The eight facilities with the highest number of exceedances for 2008 are part of the Metal Mining, Inorganic Chemical, Municipal Sewage, Miscellaneous Communal and Industrial, Industrial Minerals and Electric Power sectors.
A Miscellaneous sector facility could include a private and/or commercial sewage works under the Communal Sewage Program (trailer parks/lodges) or a sewage works not included in one of the industrial sectors regulated under the Effluent Monitoring and Effluent Limits Regulations under the Industrial Sewage Program.
From 2004 to 2008, the total number of wastewater limit non-compliance incidents has trended upwards. However, the number of exceedances has been decreased from 2007 to 2008.
Improvements
To improve the ability to compare programs (Communal verses Industrial), the Miscellaneous sector was separated and incorporated into a program area as appropriate starting in 2007 (i.e. miscellaneous industrial into the industrial sewage program and miscellaneous commercial/private into the communal sewage program). This increased the exceedances within the Communal Sewage Program and decreased the exceedances within the Industrial Sewage Program. However, in 2008 the number of exceedances has decreased from 2007 for both the Communal and Industrial Programs.
For each sector, the number of facilities with exceedances is indicated in brackets beside the sector’s name.
The eight facilities with the highest number of exceedances for 2008 are part of the Pulp and Paper, Iron and Steel, Electric Power Generation and Industrial Minerals sectors.
Improvements
To improve the ability to compare facility performance, opacity counts since 2004 indicate the number of days on which exceedance(s) occurred. Changes to regulatory opacity provisions, primarily the method of assessment, resulted in some additional facilities being included in the 2006 report and continuing into 2007 and 2008.
Because one source at a facility can trigger multiple monitoring station exceedances at the same time, the ministry adopted a new approach for reporting on these situations in 2006 continuing into 2007 and 2008. Exceedances at multiple locations, resulting from the same source at the same time would be reported once. This is more consistent with the manner in which modeled results are accounted for as well.
To further enhance air emission exceedance reporting, the ministry is posting air policy/guideline exceedances starting with the 2008 Environmental Compliance Report.
Air limit exceedances tend to involve a small number of facilities that may have numerous non-compliant discharges. Some facilities with measured and/or modeled exceedances may have exceeded the limit for more than one type of contaminant.
To improve the ability to compare facility performance, measured and modeled air exceedances were separated to identify the type of exceedance. Measured exceedances occur on any one given day, however modeled exceedances may represent multiple days.
|
2008 Orders and Convictions Related to the Posted Exceedances |
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|
Type of Discharger |
Number of Facilities |
Facilities Issued Orders (August 2009) |
Facilities Investigated (August 2009) |
Facilities Convicted (August 2009) |
Fines |
|
Wastewater |
231 |
20 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
|
Air |
74 |
16 |
6 |
1 |
$500,000 |
|
*Note: The information documented in the table is for the 2008 exceedances listed in the summaries. |
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Environmental Officers use a case-by-case approach, detailed in the ministry’s “Compliance Policy: Applying Abatement and Enforcement Tools” (Policy F-2), May 2007, to determine the appropriate response to any identified non-compliance. This approach is based on potential human health effects or environmental impairment, and other factors such as the compliance history and response of the violator.
Possible abatement/enforcement responses include education, voluntary abatement, amending authorizing documents, orders, tickets and undertaking investigations that could result in a prosecution.
Interpretations of Trends and Summaries
Some facts to keep in mind when reading the trends and summaries:
Exceedance counts can have different meanings, e.g. a limit may be based on 30 minute or annual average, an air dispersion model exceedance is counted once.
An order issued by the ministry or a ministry investigation are likely in response to a number of exceedances.
