The On-site and Excess Soil Management Regulation, introduced under Ontario Regulation 406/19 as part of the Environmental Protection Act, aims to minimize the environmental impact of the ~25 million cubic meters of excess soil generated each year and promote its reuse.
The On-site and Excess Soil Management Regulation was put in place to achieve a few things, including:
- Recognizing excess soil as a valuable resource
- Reducing clean excess soil going to landfill as waste
- Setting clear rules to govern soil reuse
- Preventing inappropriate disposal of contaminated soil
How Does this Affect Projects?
For municipalities, developers and construction companies, the On-site and Excess Soil Management Regulation represents both opportunities and challenges. Since its implementation, companies have been forced rethink how they handle and manage the soil excavated during construction and excavation projects and whether it will go to a soil management site, a reuse site, a local waste transfer facility, or a landfill/dump. In order to keep these process costs effective, developers should consider soil and its reuse much earlier in a project’s planning. It is important to be aware of properties and situations that are exempt from the On-site and Excess Soil Management Regulation.
What are Low-Risk Sites?
This term refers to properties that are generally considered to be at lower risk of having historic soil contamination. These low-risk properties are not required by the Regulation to complete excess soil reuse planning requirements, such as registration, sampling and tracking.
Low-risk sites include properties that are, or were last used for:
- Residential use
- Parkland use
- Institutional use (such as a school)
- Agricultural or other use, and
- Other types of properties (e.g., commercial and community use) if they are in a rural area (i.e., outside of a settlement area)
Low risk sites do not include:
- Properties (excluding the ones listed above) within settlement areas that are excavating 2000m3 of excess soil or more.
- A property currently or formerly used for an industrial use, a gas station or other bulk liquid storage site, a garage or for dry cleaning (these are called enhanced investigation sites).
- A project that is remediating soil with contaminants, including soil excavation to enable the filing of a record of site condition.
Other Exemptions in the On-site and Excess Soil Regulation
There are a number of other situations where section 8 of the Regulation (requirement for a notice to be filed on the excess soil registry) does not apply. These include:
- If the amount of soil being removed is 100 m3 or less, and the soil is being directly transported to a waste transfer or waste disposal facility.
- If the reason for generating the excess soil is any of: (1) to alleviate immediate danger to human health, the natural environment or property; (2) due to an order made by an authority with jurisdiction; or (3) for maintaining infrastructure in s a fit state or repair
- If the excavated soil is topsoil and is being transported directly to a reuse site for use as topsoil.
- If the excess soil is excavated as part of an undertaking relating to infrastructure, and the after removing the excess soil, it is deposited at a reuse site owned by the same owner or public body, and that reuse site is part of another undertaking related to infrastructure.
Providing Evidence of Soil Quality to Reuse Sites
Regardless of if the source site is exempt from the requirements of the On-site and Excess Soil Management Regulation, reuse site owners may need some assurance that they are receiving excess soil that would not be considered waste (i.e., it’s of appropriate quality)
Project leaders for projects exempt from the requirements of the On-site and Excess Soil Management Regulation may consider it prudent to plan for some evidence to be available indicating that the soil from that project is of appropriate quality for a reuse site. Evidence may include:
- For small projects, e.g., landscaping or pool projects, a simple description of the current use of the project area to verify it is low risk.
- Phase one environmental site assessments (ESAs) or property use assessments looking for potentially contaminating activities completed for other or verification purposes.
- Phase two ESAs or soil sampling and analysis completed for other or verification purposes.
Reuse Sites Importing Large Volumes of Soil
Audit sampling at large reuse sites is important, especially if importing from multiple sites over a long period of time. Fill management plans should have built in contingencies for how to deal with exceedances of audit samples (i.e., quarantine areas, segregation, etc.).
Audit samples should be collected at a rate commensurate with the volume of soil to be imported. A general guideline is 10% of the routine sampling that is required from the source site. A higher sampling frequency may be needed if any quality issues are identified in the soil imported from specific sites or by specific contractors.
If soil is being imported from a pit or quarry from which aggregate is excavated, audit sampling is not required.
