| 2007 Environmental Compliance Summaries | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Air Emissions | Municipal Sewage Discharges | Industrial Sewage Discharges | |||
| 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] |
SUMMARY AND/OR TRENDS
Wastewater Limit Exceedances by Sector for 2007
For each sector, the number of facilities with exceedances is indicated in brackets beside the sector’s name.
The nine facilities with the highest number of exceedances for 2007 are part of the Inorganic Chemical, Metal Mining, Municipal Sewage, Organic Chemical and Miscellaneous Industrial and Communal 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.
Wastewater Limit Exceedances for 2007
Overall, the numbers of discharges has trended upwards over the last four years, but are down 12% from 2003.
To improve the ability to compare programs (Communal verses Industrial), the Miscellaneous sector was separated and incorporated into its own program area as appropriate (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.
Air Limit Exceedances by Sector for 2007
The top ten facilities with the highest number of exceedances for 2007 are part of the Pulp and Paper, Industrial Minerals, Iron and Steel, Electric Power Generation and Miscellaneous Industrial sectors.
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 continued into the 2007 report. Secondly, 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. 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.
Air Limit Exceedances by Number of Facilities and Contaminant Type for 2007
Air limit exceedances tend to involve a small number of facilities with more stringent requirements that may have numerous non-compliant discharges. Some facilities exceeded the limit for more than one type of contaminant.
2007 Orders and Convictions related to the Posted Limit Exceedances
|
2007 Orders and Convictions Related to the Posted Exceedances |
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|
Type of Discharger |
Number of Facilities |
Facilities Issued Orders (October 2008) |
Facilities Investigated (October 2008) |
Facilities Convicted (October 2008) |
Fines (October 2008) |
|
Wastewater |
231 |
17 |
18 |
0 |
0 |
|
Air |
54 |
14 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
|
*Note: The information documented in the table is for the 2007 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.
