Draft Record of Site Condition, Risk Assessment and Vapour Intrusion Guides

On January 4, 2021, the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) posted updated draft brownfields-related guidance documents on the Environmental Registry of Ontario (ERO) for a 90-day comment period. These documents include:

• Records of Site Condition: A Guide on Site Assessment, the Cleanup of Brownfield Sites and the Filing of Records of Site Condition, which provides an overview of legislative and regulatory requirements related to Ontario’s brownfields program and an overview of its Record of Site Condition (RSC) and Risk Assessment (RA) processes. The document also includes an overview of the Excess Soil Management framework.

• Procedures for the Use of Risk Assessment under Part XV.1 of the Environmental Protection Act , which describes the legislative and regulatory requirements for conducting and submitting risk assessment reports under the Environmental Protection Act and O. Reg. 153/04. The document also contains plain language guidance for risk assessment practitioners (e.g. QPs) on how to conduct risk assessment work and prepare risk assessment reports.

• Technical Guidance for Soil Vapour Intrusion Assessment, which provides an assessment process to address the vapour intrusion pathway. This document also includes technical recommendations on characterization of soil vapour and indoor air.

This webinar is intended to encourage and support comments on these draft guides from qualified persons, municipalities, and other stakeholders with roles in brownfields redevelopment prior to publishing. Collaboration between MECP and stakeholders prior to publishing will help deliver products that supports quality RSC and RA submissions to the ministry and clarity on the application of regulatory requirements for redevelopment.

The webinar will provide a high level overview of the guides, highlights of key sections, timelines for comments, suggestions on providing structured comments to MECP, an opportunity for questions about the guides and next steps.

This webinar will not be a forum to discuss the detailed content within the guides, should not be considered training in RSC and RA regulatory requirements or be a general Q&A on MECP's brownfields program. The webinar's objective is to provide awareness on the opportunity to comment and make stakeholder commenting efficient by highlighting documents and sections that might be of interest.