April 2009

City of Toronto Adopts Chemical Bylaw

In December 2008, the City of Toronto adopted the Environmental Reporting, Disclosure and Innovation Program (Bylaw No. 1293-2008). The newly adopted program makes Toronto the first municipality in Canada to require commercial, industrial and institutional facilities to annually report the use or release of toxic substances.

 
The program is similar in nature to Environment Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI), which requires facilities to report emissions of chemicals that are generated by large scale businesses and institutions. The new program is designed to collect usage and emissions data on 25 toxic chemicals defined as “priority substances” (see table) from small to medium sized facilities. Reporting threshold quantities are dependent on the nature of the substance and range in quantity from 1 to 100 kg/year. Given the small usage quantities, annual reporting is anticipated to capture data from 5,000 to 7,000 facilities across Toronto.
 
The program will be phased in over a four year period. In Phase I, some business sectors will be required to report for the 2010 operating year, with the first annual report being submitted by June 30, 2011. These sectors include food and beverage manufacturing, tobacco products, printing and publishing, chemical manufacturing, wood industries, power generation and water and wastewater treatment.
 

Phase II business sectors will be required to report in 2012, for the 2011 operating year. The sectors include chemical wholesale, waste management and remediation services, medical and diagnostic laboratories, dry cleaning and laundry services; automotive repair and maintenance, and funeral services.

The final phase will include other sectors that are not exempt under the bylaw. 

 

Annual reporting will need to be submitted to the Toronto Public Health (TPH) Medical Officer of Health. Reporting will be comprised of information, which describes the facility, and substance-related information that provides data on the use and release of priority substances. TPH is working with Environment Canada to use the capabilities of the national One Window for National Environmental Reporting System (OWNERS) to collect reporting information.

 

Reports prepared and submitted to TPH shall be retained for a minimum of five years from the deadline and, upon request, shall be provided to the Medical Officer of Health for audit purposes.

 

The data collected in the reports will be made available to the public through a web-based database. This will include city wide mapping illustrating the locations of chemical usage and emissions.

 

Non-compliance with reporting requirements may lead to a range of possible penalties which include a maximum fine of $100,000 for the third and subsequent offences and will potentially subject facilities to inspections by the City to assess compliance.

 

For further information please contact: info@terrapex.com
   

New Federal Regulation Sets Deadlines to Eliminate Storage and Use of PCBs

The federal government has put forth a new regulation (SOR/2008-873) to end storage and use of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The new regulation revokes and replaces the existing regulations that have strictly managed PCBs over the past thirty years.

 

Historically, PCBs have been used in electrical equipment such as switches, transformers, fluorescent light ballasts, and capacitors.  The use of PCBs was banned in heat transfer and electrical equipment installed after 1977, and in transformers and capacitors installed after 1980.  These initial bans did not apply to existing equipment.

 

The new regulation will now require the removal of all existing PCB-containing equipment with PCB concentrations of 500 mg/kg or more by December 31, 2009. 

All equipment with a PCB content ranging between 50 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg must be removed by December 31, 2025, unless the equipment is in a: drinking water treatment plant, food or feed processing plant, childcare facility, preschool, primary or secondary school, hospital, senior citizens care facility, or, on a property on which one of these facilities is located within 100 m of the PCB­-containing equipment (in which case the equipment must be removed by December 31, 2009, with the exception of already in-use light ballasts and pole-mounted transformers and associated auxiliary equipment).
 
Environment Canada anticipates the regulatory deadlines will result in the removal of 90% of the PCBs in use and eliminate all PCB storage sites by the end of 2009. PCB use will be completely eliminated by 2025 following the removal of equipment containing low(er) level PCB concentrations.
 
For further information please contact: info@terrapex.com
   

Terrapex Conquers the Don River

On May 3, 2009, two Terrapex teams participated in the annual Paddle the Don fundraising event organized by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. This is the one time of the year that corporations and individuals are permitted to canoe or kayak down the lower portion of the Don River, from Eglinton Avenue to Lake Ontario. All the money raised goes towards initiatives to help fund regeneration projects for the river. 

For the second year in a row, the Terrapex teams raised the most money of all the corporate participants, winning the event and a commemorative paddle. Congratulations to all our dedicated paddlers, and thank you to all our sponsors.
 
To become a sponsor for next year please contact: info@terrapex.com
   

Terrapex Helps Defeat Litter

On April 24, 2009, Terrapex participated in the Toronto 20-minute makeover litter collection initiated by The City of Toronto, and several brave souls from the Ottawa Terrapex office dragged themselves out of bed on April 26, 2009

to participate in the annual Ottawa Riverkeeper’s spring garbage pick-up. The events help to demonstrate our commitment to the community, as well as to the environment.