Contaminated sites: which cleanup standards?
More stringent cleanup standards for contaminated sites will come into effect July 1, 2011, under 2009 amendments to Regulation 153/04. Some property owners with ongoing cleanups may prefer to use the old numbers, i.e. the “March 9, 2004 Soil, Ground Water and Sediment Standards” (“2004 sta…
View the post titled Contaminated sites: which cleanup standards?Public risk, private profits – why cap liability?
Humans are not perfect. Engineering, while amazing, is not perfect. Accidents ( including spills) will happen. What should environmental law, and lawyers, do about it?
View the post titled Public risk, private profits – why cap liability?Phytoremediation of contaminated sites
There are an estimated 30,000 contaminated sites in Canada. These include properties like former gas stations, factories, or rail yards that are contaminated by heavy metals, organic compounds, or other toxins. Redevelopment of these sites, which are often found in prime downtown areas, is …
View the post titled Phytoremediation of contaminated sitesOff-shore wind turbines: new rules
Off-shore wind turbines will likely have the best winds, but they also involve complex tradeoffs different from those that apply on land. The Renewable Energy Approvals (REA) regulation (O. Reg. 359/09) under the Environmental Protection Act therefore contemplates a special approvals regime …
View the post titled Off-shore wind turbines: new rulesDrive Clean tweaked
Ontario’s vehicle emissions control program, Drive Clean, is getting a tuneup. Amendments to Ontario Regulation 361/98[i] (Motor Vehicles) under the Environmental Protection Act will modernize the Drive Clean program.[ii] By December 12, 2012, the Acceleration Simulation Mode (dynamometer) …
View the post titled Drive Clean tweakedPrivate prosecution gets a boost
There is often tension between the public’s right to commence a private prosecution, and the attorney general’s right to take over that prosecution, often in order to drop it. The Ontario Court of Appeal has given a boost to private prosecutors, ruling that they are entitled to have at least…
View the post titled Private prosecution gets a boostSyncrude found guilty in ducks case
Syncrude has been found guilty of two offences relating to the large duck kill of 2008. That April, 1606 migrating ducks died after landing on the toxic tailings pond of the huge Aurora tar sands mine. A member of the Sierra Club laid the original charges, another vindication for private pro…
View the post titled Syncrude found guilty in ducks caseSeizure on consent?
When can ministry investigators seize documents outside the scope of a search warrant? During the execution of a warrant, Ministry of the Environment investigators seized approximately 100 documents that clearly lay outside the scope of the warrant. They showed one set of documents to the co…
View the post titled Seizure on consent?Reg. 153/04 amended again
The Ontario regulation on brownfields and records of site condition, O. Reg. 153/04, has been amended again. Ontario regulation E laws was filed June 17, 2010. The changes are minor, primarily the correction of typos and erroneous cross-references. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment h…
View the post titled Reg. 153/04 amended againEarthquakes and nuclear plants
Soon after our office stopped shaking in today’s second earthquake, I started to wonder again about Ontario’s nuclear plants. OPG says we shouldn’t worry: “There have been no earthquakes greater than a Magnitude 4 within 50 km of the Pickering nuclear power station o…
View the post titled Earthquakes and nuclear plantsReceive Blog Posts
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