Skip to main content
search

For Members

Members' Update

Message from the President

I trust everyone is settling into their post-summer fall routine — including navigating the occasional atmospheric river.

You may have seen that a new version of the CSAP website has gone live. I encourage you to spend some time perusing the new site, which I think is a big improvement.

The PD Committee and the CSAP Operations teams have been hard at work putting together the upcoming PD workshop. As you can see from the agenda, there are many interesting talks. I look forward to seeing many of you at the workshop (and the following happy hour).

In the theme of celebrating our successes, I wanted to mention an important project Active Earth recently completed. Active Earth was retained by the Tsartlip First Nation to provide environmental closure on the former BC Housing 193-acre Woodwynne Farm property in Central Saanich ahead of its Addition to Reserve. Work included extensive environmental investigations and remediation (both physical and risk), perhaps most notably was the delineation of a 0.4 ha VOC groundwater plume extending 20m into bedrock that was previously unknown. Active Earth successfully completed the remediation allowing Tsartlip to move forward with their community plans for the property. Great work!

Andrew Sorensen

Ministry Updates

Over the past several months, the ministry has updated the following webpages:

These pages were updated not only to revise policy to streamline and clarify administrative processes, but to provide more clear information to guide users through contaminated sites remediation processes. Additional work is underway to further streamline the Site Remediation website. Stay tuned to Site Remediation News for announcements about further changes.

A summary of previous Ministry updates is available here.

Performance Assessment Committee and Preliminary and Detail Administrative Screening Committee Updates

There were no Q&A questions received within the last quarter.

As a reminder, when addressing Stage 1 Findings as part of a Performance Assessment addendum report:

  • Clearly address the points highlighted by PAP members.
  • Explain professional judgement used in an application with sound rationale and scientific basis. It is preferable to not jump to collecting additional confirmatory sampling when it is not needed.
  • Be aware of the timeline to prepare a response is two months and if additional time is needed, request an extension.

A summary of previous PAC Updates is available here.

Screening Updates

Preliminary Screening

  • Signatures – When resubmitting signed documents, please check signature and date fields to ensure the resubmitted document has been signed and dated. If a document has been signed digitally, the signature will be automatically removed once the document is edited in any way, meaning it will need to be re-signed after all edits are complete.
  • Drinking Water – Please ensure an explicit statement is provided in the Summary of Site Conditions, clearly stating whether or not drinking water is deemed to apply to the site (section 4.2 Site Conditions Hydrogeology).
  • Submission Fees – Per Ministry fee guidelines, when multiple submissions that are based on a single set of reports are made for a site, each submission will require a separate SoSC report, but only a single SoSC fee of $2,000.00 +GST will be required.
  • Transmittal Letters – If there is additional information about the submission site that could be pertinent to the screening investigation, please mention it in the “is there anything CSAP and ENV need to know about this application” box on the first page of the Transmittal Letter.This could include sites being merged or subdivided, a change in civic address, or explanations for any inconsistencies in the reports or submission documents provided. This will help to pre-emptively resolve pre-screening comments and move submissions through screening more quickly.

Detailed Screening

The long-awaited NEW VERSION of the Annotated Summary of Site Condition (V2.0) is available and has been posted to the CSAP website here.

This version provides annotation for the current version of the form, available at ENV’s site remediation forms’ page. We understand that BC ENV is updating the SoSC and that it will be available for external use once it has been fully tested and finalized. CSAP will review and provide an annotated version of the new form as necessary once it is available for use.

Detailed screenings generally indicate that most APs are familiar with the tips and tricks to ensure that the SoSC(s) and other ENV documents meet ENV’s requirement. We are still seeing some of the same issues that have been raised previously (e.g., spelling of CSR substances!) so please continue to watch for those. Here are a few additional reminders:

  • If you no longer require a preapproval based on the changes to Protocol 6, a summary of the scenario (e.g., flow through site, wide area contamination) with supporting details to demonstrate that the conditions assessed are aligned with one of these scenarios must be included in Section 4.8.
  • If you have a site with concentrations greater than the Protocol 11 Upper Cap Concentrations UCC cross-sections or plume figures must be included with the SRCR.
  • When listing P2 and background substance concentrations:
    • If a substance exceeds a numerical standard but it is less than a local background concentration, it is not a contaminant and is considered evaluated to background (list in notes section of Section 4.6 of SoSC but do not carry forward in SoSC as a contaminant — list as evaluated to background on Certification Document).
    • If a substance exceeds both a numerical standard and background, it is included in the table in Section 4.6 as a contaminant of concern. If the substance is physically remediated to a local background concentration, it is considered remediated to background and is carried forward into the subsequent sections of the SoSC as a contaminant (list on the Certification document as remediated to background).

Review Services Committee Updates

We thank outgoing committee members Ajay Tumber and Stefan Quaglia.

The RSC reviews annual reports and similar documents that are typically produced to satisfy the Director’s requirements located in Schedule B instrument conditions. A reminder that the RSC does not review annual reports associated SDS related to Scenario 3 release requirements and that those types of reports should be submitted to the Site Identification group at ENV. To familiarize yourself regarding which types of applications are required to be sent CSAP Society (vs. ENV), visit the RSC webpage.

From January 1 to October 21 of this year, 43 applications were processed.

We continue to see that the majority of submissions reviewed by the RSC were associated with AIPs that had been issued in the past two to three years.

Technical Review Committee Updates

The TRC most recently met on September 19 to review the status of each of the Special Projects and consider options for Special Projects for next year. Further details on the three active Special Projects are included below.

Background Soil Concentrations – The purpose of this project is to identify whether there is sufficient information available to support changes/additions to the Protocol 4 background soil concentrations. Active Earth has been busy working on this project, reviewing how current background levels were derived and running statistical analyses; using their internal Disposal at Sea database to aid in supplementing background reference datasets; reviewing background information from other jurisdictions such as Alberta, Oregon and California; and maintaining an ongoing dialogue with ENV regarding their findings and taking ENV questions into consideration as part of the final deliverable. Reference sites have also been entered into a GIS database for presentation.

Background Groundwater Concentrations – The purpose of this project is to expand the dataset such that background concentrations for groundwater could potentially be developed for other regions of the province. PGL Environmental Consultants held a meeting on October 4 to update the TRC and ENV on their progress. PGL has identified two areas of the province, near Prince George and Fort St. John, that had the potential for enough sites to complete a statistical analysis of data to formulate background concentrations; however, the reports still need to be retrieved. PGL suggested that the firms which completed these studies could be contacted directly to see if the reports could be released for this purpose. Access to the reports appears to be a limiting factor at this point with ENV unable to provide the resources necessary to search and retrieve such a large volume of reports in a timely manner. The BC Energy Regulator (formerly the BC Oil & Gas Commission) has indicated that an initiative is under way to collate reports it receives for future use in data evaluation, but it is unclear how soon this may prove useful for this project. The draft report is expected to be delivered to CSAP by November 30.

Review of Groundwater Plume Stability Assessment Methods – The purpose of this project is to provide practitioners with some options for stability assessment methods that can be used for assessing the stability of groundwater contaminant plumes to confirm that contaminated sites in BC are being assessed using the best available technology. WSP had previously developed similar guidance and training materials for the state of Missouri and leveraged this experience to aid in the development of draft conceptual site models and a matrix for plume stability methods. Their work has been documented in a draft report provided to the TRC project team in early October, which was recently provided to ENV for review and comment. WSP will be presenting the draft report at the Fall PD Workshop on November 7.

Scholarships – CSAP provides three scholarships per year, totaling $17,000, to students enrolled in a science or engineering graduate program whose studies are relevant to the assessment and remediation of contaminated sites. CSAP is now accepting applications for the 2025 scholarships, with the deadline being March 31, 2025.

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 is excited to announce the new Continued Professional Development (CPD) requirements, effective in 2025 for Dec 31, 2025, renewals. These changes will emphasize CPD related to contaminated sites and make it easier for members to track and log their hours. More details will be shared at the Fall PD workshop.

The Exam Sub-committee has completed this year’s technical assessments. The regulatory exam is scheduled for November 14, 2024. We would like to thank everyone who has helped with this year’s exam process.

This is a reminder that CPD hours are required to be logged in the CSAP Members’ Portal by December 31, 2024.  (Members who are non-compliant with logging in their required hours by December 31, 2024, will be fined an administration fee).

Professional Development Committee Updates

Our annual workshop is coming up in under two weeks’ time on November 7, 2024, at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver.

This is a rare opportunity to catch up in person with colleagues, stakeholders, and regulators. All are welcome. Sessions include:

  • Director’s Update with Carrie Nugent, Director, Site Remediation Program, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy (ENV)
  • First Nations’ Land Projects with Jo-Ann Aldridge, M.A.Sc., P.Eng., Senior Environmental Specialist, Contaminated Sites Unit/First Nations Lands Management, Lands and Economic Development, Indigenous Services Canada, BC Region
  • AP Review of Remediation and Regulatory Compliance with Alan McCammon, Manager, Remediation Assurance, Site Remediation Program, ENV
  • Review of Groundwater Plume Stability Assessment Methods with Mark Adamson, P.Geo., CSAP; Joe A. Ricker, P.E., Vice-President, Senior Principal Engineer; and David Winchell, P.E., Senior Technical Principal Engineer, WSP
  • Lessons Learned from the Performance Assessment Committee and Detailed Screening Sub-Committee
  • Conceptual Site Investigation Group Activity
  • SWOT Analysis 2024 Overview: CSAP, Brownfield Sites, Stage 14/Protocol 19, Sustainability, and Natural Resource Sector
  • Protocol 6 Panel Discussion

Afterward, enjoy the on-site happy hour at Hyatt’s Mosaic Grille.

Register for the event here.

Lunch and Learn
In early October, we held a session on Protocol 2 Site-Specific Standards Numerical Soil Standards: Recent Revisions and Reminders presented by Erin Robson, M.Eng., P.Eng., CSAP, SLR Consulting. Find the recording here.

Our final webinar of the year takes place on December 12 at 11 a.m. and will be an update on and demo of ENV’s Site Remediation Services’ web app. Watch your email and the Lunch and Learn webpage for the Zoom link.

Submission Statistics update (as of October 23, 2024)

What’s new at CSAP

  • We launched our new website earlier this month. We’ve updated the design and navigation to make it easier to find information and resources. Check it out!
  • 2025 scholarship application applications are now open. We support the next generation of Contaminated Sites Approved Professionals by offering up to three scholarships annually to science and engineering graduate students whose studies are relevant to the assessment and remediation of contaminated sites.

Professional development opportunities

Please note, these are virtual unless otherwise noted.

Subscribe