Environmental Compliance Reports

The annual release of Ontario’s Environmental Compliance Reports provides the public with information about environmental activities in local communities. 

Environmental Compliance Reports provide information about contaminant discharges to water and emissions to air that exceed limits found in legislation, certificates of approval, orders and/or policies/guidelines. Generally, the facilities report non-compliance to the ministry.  Some non-compliance may also be identified by the ministry through inspections.

The ministry seeks to safeguard the public interest by ensuring that its response to an incident is proportionate to the severity of the incident.  The ministry reviews all recorded incidents of limits being exceeded and ensures that appropriate action is taken.  The range of abatement and enforcement responses includes: education, suspension of and amendments to approvals, issuing orders, tickets and/or environmental penalties and undertaking investigations that may result in prosecution. 

If you are interested in an update on any of the entries or note any discrepancies, please contact the appropriate district or area office.

• 2008 Environmental Compliance Regional Reports
• 2008 Environmental Compliance Trends

Glossary

Air Dispersion Models - a computer model/computation method which predicts ground level concentrations, which are then assessed against the air quality standards, guidelines and recommended limits.  A modeled exceedance may represent multiple days of exceedances.

Contaminant - any solid, liquid, gas, or odour resulting directly or indirectly from a variety of activities that may cause an adverse effect to human health or the environment. Contaminants are listed in the summaries as a sub-heading under each facility.

Certificates of Approval (C of A) - documents issued by the ministry that set legal requirements on companies/individuals (e.g. sampling and reporting requirements, discharge limits).

Date - the month within which the discharge to water or emission to air exceeded the allowed level. Some reported air non-compliance is based on air dispersion models. For these types of emissions, the incident date refers to the date of the report provided by the facility that identifies the non-compliance.

Exceedance - an emission or discharge monitoring value above a legal requirement or a policy/guideline.

Facility Action - actions the facility took to address or prevent future exceedances. For additional information about the facility’s action, contact the appropriate district or area office.

Frequency - the sampling or reporting interval during which the contaminant levels cannot be exceeded. For example, if the contaminant limit is 15 mg/l with a monthly average frequency, this means that several samples are collected in a month and the limit is measured against the reported average of the sample results.

Limit - the maximum, or in some cases minimum, discharge/emission levels (for example, pH levels) as identified in a Certificate of Approval, order, regulation or policy.

Max. - the maximum (highest) exceedance that month. The maximum value needs to be read with the contaminant unit and the limit frequency (see above). The value may be measured using online analyzers, composite or grab samples, continuous emissions monitors, community monitoring or air dispersion models.

Min. - the minimum (lowest) or only exceedance that month. The minimum value needs to be read with the contaminant unit and the limit frequency (see above). The value may be measured using online analyzers, composite or grab samples, continuous emissions monitors, monitoring stations within the community or air dispersion models.

Ministry Action - the ministry’s response to address or prevent future exceedances. The level of detail is limited. For additional information about ministry actions, contact the appropriate district or area office. Ministry actions range from compliance-assistance, education and outreach, through to voluntary abatement plans, orders, suspension of Certificates of Approval or permits, issuing tickets and investigations that may result in a prosecution.

Miscellaneous Sector – means 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.

No. of Exceedances - the number of exceedances that occurred during that month. Some reported air exceedances are based on air dispersion models which are counted as one exceedance based on the date the modeling report is received.  Opacity counts indicate the number of days on which exceedances occurred.  Exceedances at multiple monitoring station locations, resulting from the same sources at the same time would be reported as one exceedance.

Non-Compliance - an emission or discharge value, a circumstance, an act or a process that does not comply with a legal requirement.

Orders - there are three types of orders: Provincial Officer's Orders, Director's Orders and Environmental Penalty Orders.

Type of Exceedance - the instrument or document that identifies the limit. For example, the term "C of A Non-Compliance" means that the limit was identified in the Certificate of Approval, and there was an exceedance of that limit identified in the report or by the ministry. Other documents could be Provincial Officer’s Orders, Director’s Orders, regulations or policies/guidelines.

Unit - a determined quantity (length, time, heat or value) adopted as a standard of measurement, for example, milligrams per litre (mg/l). The unit listed in the report should be read in conjunction with the minimum and maximum values of contaminant discharged/emitted and the contaminant’s limit.

Archives

• Environmental Compliance Reports for 2007
• Environmental Compliance Reports for 2006
• Environmental Compliance Reports for 2005
• Environmental Compliance Reports for 2004

What's in this Section