Sector Compliance Branch: Inspections

Petrochemical Industry - Sarnia Inspection Sweep

The Sector Compliance Branch (formerly called the Environmental SWAT Team) conducted a sweep of the petrochemical sector in the Sarnia area that began in February 2004, and continued for 11 months. A total of 35 inspections were performed during this period.

• Background
• The Inspections
• Inspection Results

Background

In February 2004, the Sector Compliance Branch began to conduct a comprehensive inspection sweep of industrial facilities in the Sarnia area. The decision to undertake a sweep of this magnitude came after a number of facilities in Sarnia's industrial sector had allowed potentially harmful chemicals to spill into the St. Clair River, causing the quality of the drinking water in the area to be compromised. Environmental officers undertook an 11-month inspection sweep of Sarnia's industrial sector with the primary goal of ensuring that all facilities in that region were brought into compliance with environmental legislation. The team took these actions to help reduce the threat of future spills and unlawful discharges and emissions. The team also focused on finding legislative and regulatory gaps that could allow environmentally unsafe practices to exist at the facilities.

The Inspections

The Sarnia area inspection sweep was the most comprehensive sweep of an industrial sector ever undertaken by the Sector Compliance Branch. The primary focus was to inspect areas with the potential for future spills that could pose risks to human health and/or the environment. Officers also looked at other areas within the facilities relating to waste management, laboratory operations and other processes/areas that must meet environmental legislative and regulatory requirements.

Inspection Results

The inspectors found that almost 100% of the facilities were out of compliance with one or more legislative and regulatory requirements.

Some common deficiencies included:

• operating without a certificate of approval for air emissions, wastewater collection and treatment works
• no spill contingency and/or spill prevention plans
• altering equipment, systems, processes, or structure contrary to the existing certificate of approval
• improper chemical storage, handling and identification

View a summary of results.