Previous Ministry Updates
Previous PAC Updates
Previous Members’ Updates

MEMBERS’ UPDATE – Winter 2023

Message from the President

CSAP Society has continued on smoothly amidst a variety of changes, namely the transitions in leadership at both CSAP Society and the Land Remediation Section of ENV. Leaders at CSAP and ENV have successfully established strong and effective working relationships quickly. CSAP Society held a strategic planning workshop in December which was very productive. Committee chairs presented plans for the coming year, and then the entire board spent several hours brainstorming strategic objectives for the coming year and establishing action items. Progress on CSAP’s strategic goals of Building Awareness, Membership Sustainability, Proactive Interaction with ENV, and Education/Outreach, will be reported out to the Board of Directors quarterly.

We have all read the headlines of BC’s premier announcing the provincial government’s commitment to reduce the timelines for the permitting of housing projects. ENV’s Land Remediation Section has shared that they will be increasing staff as part of its initiative to prioritize contaminated sites’ certifications for housing projects. ENV is clearly committed to this goal and CSAP Society will assist their leadership team in whatever capacity is required to support them in achieving this.

Here is wishing all of our members and stakeholders a prosperous and healthy 2023!

Duncan Macdonald


Performance Assessment Committee and Preliminary and Detail Administrative Screening Committee Updates

  1. Members are reminded that submissions made to CSAP for ENV Instruments cannot be withdrawn once logged into the system.  Submission withdrawals for extenuating circumstances may be considered and approved by the PAC. Under such circumstances, the submitting AP(s) must provide a detailed rationale for their request to withdraw.
  2. During the PA process, the submitting AP(s) has two months from the date they receive the Stage 1 Review Findings to submit the Addendum to the submission. Once a draft Addendum has been prepared by the submitting AP(s), a meeting with the DM and PA Panel is highly recommended. The submitting AP(s) must notify the PA Coordinator within one month (30 days) of the date of the Stage 1 Review Findings letter if they would like to request a meeting with the PA Panel and DM.
  3. When substances are remediated to background concentrations, those should both be listed in Tables 4.6 and 5.3 of the Summary of Site Condition.
  4. Focused Reviews conducted by PAC may be initiated through unresolved issues during Detailed Screening or may be requested by ENV through the SDM’s review of the Instrument application. During the Focused Review, the DM will review the sections of the technical report(s) relevant to the outstanding items requiring clarification. The review process may involve discussion with the DS, the submitting AP(s) and/or the BC ENV.

There are two possible outcomes of the Focused Review:

  • All outstanding items requiring clarification from the DS are resolved, and the submission is sent to the ENV.
  • The outstanding items requiring clarification from the DS are not resolved, and a review of the relevant sections of the report(s) indicates the potential for major technical errors or regulatory omissions that could impact the conclusions of the reports. In this case, the DM will provide the PAC with the results of their Focused Review; the PAC will review the information and determine if a non-random performance assessment is warranted.
  1. Look for the Site Investigation Protocol regarding soil relocation from ENV coming in February, which will come into effect on March 1, 2023, with the CSR Stage 14 Amendment.

A summary of previous PAC Updates is available here.

Screening Updates

Detailed Screening

We continue to see fewer issues identified during detailed screenings and limited feedback from ENV on submissions that are forwarded to them from CSAP. Keep up the great work!
There are a few minor issues that are identified on a regular basis, so a reminder to watch for these:

  • In the SoSC Section 4.2, explicit statements regarding the application (or lack thereof) of ALL water uses (AW, DW, IW and LW) should be provided.
  • In the SoSC Section 4.4, both current and future vapour use must be addressed and information on the vapour attenuation factors used in the vapour assessment must be included.
  • In the SoSC Section 4.6, notes must be provided on the risk classification for the site.
  • If P4 or P9 background determinations have been applied for, the background concentrations must be included in the notes in the SoSC Section 4.6
  • For risk-based submissions, the Site Type (1 or 2) must be provided in the notes in the SoSC, Section 4.6 (can also be included in Section 5.1 and/or 5.2). All Type 2 sites require a PVP.
  • Spellings for substances must match the CSR schedules (applies to both SoSC and instrument).

Review Services Committee Updates

Generally the Review Services Committee reviews the following on behalf of ENV:

  • Approved Professional statements required by the Ministry
  • Reports submitted to meet the Ministry requirements. For example: progress reports; monitoring reports; confirmation reports; annual/biannual, quarterly, or monthly reports; or other similar titles.

Some examples of applications that require submission to ENV are those in regard to high-risk sites and any requirements coming out of the SDS/site profile process.

In response to questions we have received we note the following types of requests associated with AP statements and other Director-required reporting should be sent to ENV and not the RSC:

  • Requests for an extension to the due date associated with a Schedule B instrument reporting requirement
  • Requests for an extension to a 5-year AiP
  • Requests to modify the field or reporting requirements associated with a PVP or Schedule B conditions

Further information on the requirements for an AP Statement or other Director-required reporting submissions to the RSC can be found here.

Technical Review Committee Updates:

The TRC has several projects currently underway:

Climate Change Impacts on Contaminated Sites in BC – CSAP is developing some guidance to help practitioners understand which climate hazards pose the greatest risk or challenge to our practice area in the future. The RFP for this project was released in early November 2022 and we received four great proposals. The work was awarded to Core 6 in early January 2023. A draft report is expected at the end of April.

Updates to the CSAP Webmap – CSAP is currently working with the developers to improve the functionality of the webmap based on recent feedback from users. The updates are expected to be completed by end of March 2023.

 Review of ENV Discussion Paper on Making Contaminated Sites Climate Ready – The TRC also recently submitted comments on behalf of CSAP on ENV’s discussion paper related to climate change. Comments on the discussion paper were due by December 23, 2022. The TRC provided comments on the discussion paper based on recommendations of the TRC Working Group and included feedback received from seven firms/individuals. Thanks to those of you that shared your thoughts and comments on the discussion paper with the TRC.  It helped CSAP provide ENV with a response that addressed the depth and breadth of issues across our industry.

CSAP Scholarships – CSAP awards three scholarships annually to graduates studying in the area of contaminated site investigation and remediation. The deadline to apply is March 31. If you know of a suitable applicant, please direct them to our website to find out more information and download the application. Scholarships will be awarded in May and announced at our AGM.

TRC documents completed over the past year include:

  • CSAP Guidance on the Assessment of the Soil Vapour to Air Pathway (August 2020) – now available under the Research and Technical Studies page.
  • Updated CSAP Practice Guideline Checklists – Both the Risk Assessment and Numeric are available for use here.

A project from last year that has now wrapped up is CSAP Guidance for Identifying PCOCs. The purpose of this project was to assist practitioners with PCOC screening conducted as part of Stage 1 Preliminary Site Investigations in BC. A draft of the guidance was presented at the Fall PD workshop in November. Following the workshop, the draft report was posted for member comments. The comment period ended on December 15, 2022, and we ended up receiving comments from 8 firms/individuals. The report has been finalized and is available on the CSAP website here.

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 CSAP Membership Committee is hitting the ground running (hopefully not sliding by the time you read this), as we have many plans to streamline both the application process for new members and CPD requirements for existing members. To assist in the first of these efforts, we welcome Mandeep Purewal, Senior Risk Assessor and Toxicologist with SNC-Lavalin. Mandeep will be heading up our Exam sub-committee as chair with the assistance of Tadd Berger and Ian Mitchell. Sam Reimer has expertly led the Exam sub-committee since its inception and will remain available as a crucial resource as he passes the marking pencil to the new chair.

New members!
We are pleased to welcome two new members:

  • Meredith Guest – SNC-Lavalin
  • Seth Kingsbury – Ausenco

Request for Exam Candidates Experience Reviewers
The Membership Committee invites interested APs to put their name forward to review new candidates’ work experience and provide a recommendation.

We encourage past and present Exam Development Panel volunteers to be Experience Reviewers, too.

The time commitment is as follows:

  • Experience Reviewers are paired to review each candidate’s experience presentation [maximum 4 billable hours per review]
  • CSAP encourages the reviewers to request further information from the candidates if necessary, and to interview them in case they still have doubts and the documents do not suffice for the application resolution [billable time dependent on a case-by-case basis]
  • Provide experience review results [Due date June 14]
  • Please indicate which category of Experience Reviewer, Risk or Numerical, you are interested in via email to [email protected].

Request for Regulatory Examination Development Volunteers
The Membership Committee invites interested APs to put their name forward to volunteer as part of the examination process. The exam development panel will be selected based on experience and a range of locations and company affiliations.

Exam Developer: The time commitment is as follows:

  • New volunteers 2-hour webinar on March 10. [2 billable hours]
  • Write 2 exam questions by Monday, April 10, write three exam questions by Wednesday, June 7. This is a firm deadline; no extensions will be made. [10 billable hours]
  • Attend a 2.5-hour writing workshop on Tuesday, April 13 [2.5 billable hours]
  • Peer review of questions
  • Attend a 1.5-day exam development workshop on September 27 & 28. [13 billable hours]

Professional Development Committee Updates:

Fall PD Workshop
CSAP’s first in-person Fall PD Workshop in three years was held on November 17 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. The theme was Post Stage 14 Soil Management.

Over 100 professionals attended and enjoyed networking with colleagues, stakeholders, and regulators. Sessions featured the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, BC Hydro, a local economist, a panel discussion, and more.

For those who were unable to attend, find the workshop presentations here.

Lunch and learn
The PD Committee is pleased to launch the Lunch and Learn series on February 22.

These virtual one-hour sessions are open to the public with the exception of members’ open forums which provide an opportunity to confidentially address issues affecting your AP practice with your peer group.

Zoom links will be available closer to each date. No pre-registration is required.

Our 2023 schedule is as follows:

Date Time Topic Zoom link
February 22 11 a.m. AiPs (joint presentation with ENV) TBC
April 5 12 p.m. Members’ Open Forum TBC
May 18 11 a.m. PCOCs TBC
June 21 12 p.m. Vapour (joint presentation with ENV) TBC
August 9 11 a.m. Members’ Open Forum TBC
September 13 12 p.m. P6 Approvals TBC
November 22 11 a.m. Members’ Open Forum with ENV TBC

Bookmark the event webpage for the Zoom links and share with anyone you think may be interested in attending. We look forward to seeing you there and “talking shop”!

Submission Statistics update (as of January 30, 2023)

Submissions Received over Fiscal Years

What’s new at CSAP

  • In anticipation of the Stage 14 CSR amendments that will be in effect March 1, 2023, please be advised:-Submissions received before 4pm Pacific on February 28, 2023 by CSAP, will not be impacted.
    -Submissions received after 4pm Pacific on February 28, 2023, will have to comply to the new changes and requirements.Note: Submissions received electronically will only be logged once both cheques and documents are received.
  • Registration for CSAP’s AGM and PD Workshop on June 1, 2023. is now open here. More details will be forthcoming in the Spring Update.

Community Updates

Links of Interest

If you have a link of interest please forward it to [email protected]

Industry Events