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For Members

Members' Update

President’s Message

As we welcome the fall season, I’m excited to connect with many of you at our upcoming Professional Development Workshop on November 12. If you haven’t registered yet, now is the perfect time—don’t miss out (Fall PD Workshop – CSAP Society)! 

Our Professional Development Committee has put together a full and interesting agenda. Highlights include: 

  • Updates from BC ENV
  • A presentation on integrating climate change into risk assessment
  • A presentation on contaminant issues associated with wildfires
  • PAC Lessons Learned
  • Another ENV FAQ Interactive Discussion that promises to be both engaging and insightful!

The workshop is a highlight for me, as it is a fantastic opportunity to connect and share with our members and others in the industry (don’t forget to remind your colleagues that they don’t have to be a member to attend). 

In Ministry news, BC ENV launched their new SRS web app on September 16. As of that date, all forms and applications must be submitted through the app. Instructions for using the app are available at SRS webapp instructions. If you haven’t already done so, please make sure to set up your BCeID, which is required to access the system. Further, if you missed it, CSAP, on behalf of BC ENV, emailed a memorandum on October 9 regarding BC ENV’s proposed fee changes. If you haven’t already done so, please take the time to review and provide feedback via email to [email protected]. 

Finally, we were very happy to hear the news today that the BC GEU has reached a tentative agreement with the province, and that our colleagues at the Ministry have returned to work. We wish them all a smooth transition back to the office and look forward to connecting soon. 

Ministry Updates

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the Site Remediation Services (SRS) Web App on September 16 – a significant step toward streamlining the application process for site remediation in B.C. 

This new digital platform is designed to enhance efficiency and improve communication between environmental consultants, local governments, and the Ministry. Since launch, we’ve received over 190 applications and notifications. Thank you for your active participation and support! 

Key Update: BC Box Upload Access 

We’ve been working to resolve a BC Box upload issue that affected document submissions. BC Box is the secure location where supporting documents for online applications are uploaded. 

To improve access and transparency, we’ve updated who receives upload notifications and access: 

  • The application submitter
  • The client
  • The Approved Professional
  • The local government (if applicable)
  • Any additional emails listed on the application forms

Important: All email addresses must be linked to a BCeID to log in and access BC Box. 

We appreciate your patience as we finalize these improvements and ensure a smoother experience for you and your clients. 

Stay Informed & Connected 

We’re committed to continuous improvement and are actively incorporating your feedback into future updates. 

If you have questions, suggestions for improvement, encounter issues, or need support, don’t hesitate to reach out – email [email protected]  

Thank you for your continued collaboration! 

Job Action Update 

As you may be aware, the Site Remediation Program was recently impacted by ongoing job action. Approximately half of our program staff went on strike on September 2, with most of the remaining staff having joined the strike as of October 6. As a result, processing times for applications submitted were delayed.   

However, now that job action has concluded, the Program is happy to have staff back and everyone is ready to jump back into their respective roles.  It will take a bit of time to get things back to normal, but everyone at the ministry will be working diligently to get applications processed in a timely manner. 

Site Remediation updates and announcements will be made through the Site Remediation News email subscription service. A summary of previous Ministry updates is available here. 

Performance Assessment Committee Updates

There was one Q&A question received within the last quarter. The question clarified what an AP is required to review for a CoC that is following an AiP certification. As the AiP certifies the Remediation Plan with the listed conditions, that typically allows for a limited scope review. This may mean that a review of the Confirmation of Remediation report will be sufficient. However, Remediation Plans sometimes include additional investigation or delineation works such as in cases where site access was restricted during the DSI. Similarly, a Remediation Plan may include additional plume stability testing. In cases such as these, the AP review should include any updates to the DSI and evaluate whether they have the potential to impact the original conclusions. A PA Panel would also review these items during the course of the PA. 

Lessons Learned include: 

  • Please note that there is no reference to primary and secondary PCOCs in legislation or protocols and that it is expected that all PCOCs, whether they are considered primary, secondary, associated, likely, possible, related or break-down products etc. are to be investigated for each APEC. However, PCOC lists are not prescribed for Schedule 2 activities, they are available as guidance only, so a director has discretion, and they consider a QP’s professional judgement in their decision as to whether APECs have been fully investigated for PCOCs.
  • For each Risk-based Standards submission, only one Numerical Standards AP and one Risk-based Standards AP can make a recommendation to a director in support of an application for a certification document.
  • When completing soil vapour modelling, please include the calculations within an appendix of the report to understand what assumptions were used.
  • When additional contamination is identified during the remediation, the initial groundwater investigation presented as part of the DSI should be reviewed to confirm that the initial characterization is still adequate.
  • Use care in selecting the monitoring well screen elevations based on the conceptual site model for each APEC at the site to target where contamination could be expected.

A summary of previous PAC Updates is available here. 

Detailed Screening Sub-Committee Updates

Preliminary Screening

  • Please make sure an explicit statement on drinking water is provided in section 4.2 of the SoSC. This should be straightforward and clear, i.e.  “drinking water use does/does not apply.”
  • Ensure the most up to date certification document and cover letter templates are being used. The current templates can be found in the Members’ Portal.
  • Please be consistent with the LAT/LONG coordinates throughout the various submission documents.
  • Similarly, please be consistent with applicant and site owner company names across different submission forms.
  • Try to keep file names at a manageable length. For example, avoid including full civic addresses as part of a document name.

Detailed Screening

Detailed screenings continue to go smoothly due to the high quality of most submissions; however, there are three issues that have been coming up repeatedly in recent months. These ‘tips’ have been shared before, but are included here again as a reminder (PLEASE make sure to check your submissions): 

1. Spelling of substances: the spelling of substances across all sections of the SoSC and in Schedule C of the certification document must match the CSR schedules. Watch for different spellings in the different schedules (e.g., xylenes vs. xylenes, total) and remember that LEPH and HEPH in soil and water are presented as LEPHs/HEPHs and LEPHw respectively. 

2. Use of Site Specific Standards (SSS) (P2) or Background Soil (P4) or Groundwater (P9): If SSS, P4 background soil concentrations, or P9 background groundwater concentrations are applied to the Site, check the appropriate box(es) in Section 4.4 of the SoSC, and be sure to list in the notes in Section 4.6 of the SoSC (including the substances/concentrations that have been applied). If you have evaluated to SSS/background (vs. remediated to) revise the certification document template text to indicate “evaluated to”: 

  • For clarity, you would only include ‘remediated to background or SSS’ on the certification document if concentrations initially exceeded the background or SSS concentrations and were subsequently remediated to meet those concentrations. 

3. Site Risk Classification Records: Last year ENV requested that Detailed Screeners review SRCRs in more detail as the required information is often not included. They have specifically requested that screeners check for the following information (the last item in BOLD is often not included): 

a. If the CSSAF indicates that an SRCR was submitted in the last five years, confirm the dates to determination if the exception applies. 

b. Do the SoSC, CSSAF and SRCR list the same site risk classification? 

c. If concentrations > UCC are identified in SRCR, have UCC cross-sections and plume/area extent figures been included in the SRCR package? Has the EPQ been completed correctly?

Review Services Sub-committee Updates

A reminder to please make sure to include a copy of the certification document when submitting an AP Statement or Monitoring Report. Also, if any reporting period was missed, please identify that as well. 

The RSC has not received any feedback from ENV on issues with the current review process.  

Review Services submissions are largely on par with the previous year, currently sitting at 44 RSC submissions as of October 22, 2025. 39 of those 44 submissions have been reviewed and transferred to ENV, and we have received 17 Acknowledgment Letters back as of October 22. All 17 of these Acknowledgment Letters have confirmed the requirements were satisfied for the reporting period. Thank you to all our Review Services Sub-committee members for their work on these reviews. 

Total Submissions Sent to ENV Review in Progress Acknowledgment Letters Received
43 39 4 17

Technical Review Committee Updates

The TRC most recently met as a whole on October 1, with additional meetings held with subgroups of the TRC in September to continue work on the two Special Projects we have proceeding this year. Additional details on the projects are included below.

Emerging Contaminants Special Project – The purpose of this project is to evaluate emerging contaminants (ECs) with a focus on Schedule 2 uses, and to provide guidance and information to ENV to be used in future amendments to the Contaminated Sites Regulation. Active Earth was selected as the winning proponent for this project. An update meeting was held on September 17 between CSAP, ENV and Active Earth to go over AE’s progress so far. AE had completed the first two tasks of the project, which were to conduct a literature review to identify ECs and then construct a shortlist of ECs with a focus on Schedule 2 uses, as well as construct a prioritization system to further refine the list of ECs for a more focused review.   A presentation of the project findings will be given at the Spring 2026 CSAP PD workshop.

Lower Mainland Soil Arsenic Background Concentrations Project – The purpose of this project is to build off the Background Soil Concentrations project completed last year and provide a more detailed description of the arsenic concentrations in the Lower Mainland and to determine if there are sub-regions where background arsenic concentrations exceed those published in ENV’s Protocol 4 – Table 1. This project was awarded to Core 6 Environmental. A kick-off meeting was held on September 8, and the project is still in the literature review and data collection phase.  A presentation of the project findings will be given at the Spring 2026 CSAP PD workshop.

Scholarships – CSAP provides three scholarships per year, totaling $17,000, to applicants enrolled in a science or engineering graduate program with a focus on contaminated sites. CSAP is now accepting applications for the 2026 scholarships, with the deadline being March 31, 2026.

If you have any suggestions for a topic that you would like the TRC to tackle, please send your ideas to [email protected].

Membership Committee Updates

The Membership Committee would like to remind members that Continued Professional Development (CPD) hours for 2025 are due by December 31, 2025 (Members who are non-compliant with logging in their required hours by December 31, 2025, will be fined an administration fee). Please ensure your hours are entered before the deadline. Tracking and logging of CPD hours remains available through the online Members’ Portal.

The Exam Sub-committee has completed development of the 2025 exams. We extend our thanks to everyone involved in this year’s exam process. The exams are scheduled as follows:

  • Numerical: November 4, 2025
  • Risk: November 4, 2025
  • Regulatory: November 5, 2025

If you know of any prospective members who may be interested in joining, please direct them to the membership requirements and application presented in Section 3 and Appendix 1 of the Membership Guidelines.  This will help them prepare well in advance of the application period.

Professional Development Committee Updates

Fall PD Workshop

Our annual Fall PD Workshop is coming up soon on November 12, 2025 at the Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel.

This session is open to members and non-members and is a rare opportunity to catch up in person with colleagues, stakeholders, and regulators. The following sessions have been confirmed:

  • Director’s Update by Carrie Nugent, Director, Site Remediation Program, Ministry of Environment and Parks (ENV)
  • Protocol 12 Clarifications by Kerri Skelly, Manager, Operations, Site Remediation Program, ENV
  • Lessons Learned from the Chair of our Performance Assessment Committee
  • Climate Change Readiness in Risk Assessment by the Mandeep Purewal, CSAP, AtkinsRéalis
  • Environmental and Health Impacts of Wildfires in BC by Dr. John Clague, Shrum Research Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University
  • Nature-Based, Data-Backed: The Future of Sustainable Remediation, Parisa Jourabchi, Ph.D., P.Eng., ARIS Environmental Ltd.
  • Neurodiversity in the Workplace, Courtenay Edwardes, RTC, ADHD Coaching & Counselling
  • ENV FAQ Interactive Discussion, facilitated by David Mitchell from Active Earth and Kerri Skelly, Manager, Operations, Site Remediation Program, ENV

In addition, there will be a no-host happy hour in the Pinnacle Foyer, with complimentary canapés so you can continue your conversations after the event.

Register for the event here.

Lunch and Learn

We held two well-attended lunch and learn sessions this summer, including an update and demo of the Site Remediation Services Web App by ENV on July 16 and a presentation by the Ministry of Transportation and Transit on soil relocation on September 16. Find the recordings of select lunch and learn sessions here.

The next session will take place on December 10 at 11:00 a.m. Topic is currently being finalized. Watch for an email with the Zoom link.

For the most up-to-date details on all Lunch and Learn sessions, bookmark the webpage.

Submission Statistics Update (as of October 22, 2025)

What’s New At CSAP

Our 2026 scholarship applications are now open.

Two $5,000 scholarships and one $7,000 scholarship are available to science and engineering graduate students whose studies are relevant to the assessment and remediation of contaminated sites in British Columbia.

All the details and the application form are here: https://csapsociety.bc.ca/about/scholarships/

The closing date for applications is March 31, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. PT.

In The News

Professional Development Opportunities

Please note, these are virtual unless otherwise noted.

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