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Amendments to O. Reg. 406/19: On-Site and Excess Soil Regulation

October 24, 2023

The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) is proposing to amend O. Reg. 406/19: On-Site and Excess Soil Regulation (“Excess Soil Regulation”) and the Rules for Soil Management and Excess Soil Quality Standards. The MECP proposed amendments are intended to make the regulation easier to understand and more practical to implement, and to reduce requirements on lower risk activities to achieve greater reuse of readily usable excess soils.

In 2019, MECP finalized a new Excess Soil Regulation, supported by risk-based soil reuse standards, to make it easier and safer for industry to reuse more excess soil locally.  The Excess Soil Regulation has been phased in over several years and is now largely in effect.

To help ensure the regulation is effective and practical, MECP is now proposing the following amendments and changes:

  • Remove requirements for waste Environmental Compliance Approvals (ECAs) for third-party storage and processing of readily usable low-risk dry soils and small liquid soil sites (Class 1 sites) and enhance usability of proponent-controlled storage and limited processing sites (Class 2 sites)
  • Increase flexibility for reuse of salt-impacted soil in low-risk circumstances
  • Exempt specified small projects from physical or electronic hauling records, and add clarifications related to required information and responsibility for confirming information in hauling records
  • Exempt landscaping projects at low-risk portions of enhanced investigation project areas from reuse planning requirements
  • Clarify the responsibility of the qualified person when substances such as polymers are used for dewatering or solidification of liquid soil
  • Enable storage of sediment and soil near waterbodies for projects excavating in or adjacent to that waterbody
  • Additional clarifications and corrections to assist with better understanding of requirements.

 

To review the proposed amendments in more detail and to provide your feedback, please visit ERO #019-7636 on the Environmental Registry of Ontario which is available for public comment until December 1, 2023.