4. Environmental Emergency Reporting Requirements - Section 201

Section 201 of CEPA 1999 requires that, when an environmental emergency occurs for any of the substances on the list established on Schedule 1 under the Environmental Emergency Regulations, any person who owns or has the charge, management or control of the substance immediately before the emergency shall, as soon as possible, notify an enforcement officer or any other person designated pursuant to the Regulations. In addition, this person must abide by a number of other requirements, such as taking all reasonable measures consistent with protection of the environment and public safety and providing a written report.

There are no environmental emergency notification and reporting thresholds associated with the 174 substances listed in Schedule 1 of the Regulations at this time. Specific notification and reporting points of contact as well as verbal and written report information requirements are contained in Appendix 6 of these Guidelines.

While the Environmental Emergency Regulations will not, at least initially, be specifying any environmental emergency reporting thresholds, the department considers that existing provincial reporting thresholds, if any, or alternatively those specified under the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act are acceptable for the purposes of meeting obligations under the general provisions of section 201 of CEPA 1999 (see Appendix 6). This would eliminate confusion and also contribute to federal/provincial harmonization in this area.