Environmental Emergency Planning

The New Legal Requirement for Environmental Emergency Planning

New Environmental Emergency (E2) regulations were published on September 10, 2003 by the Federal government. ? Within 90 days (by Nov. 18, 2003) all facilities that store or use one of the 174 toxic substances listed in the regulations, and above certain threshold values, have to notify Environment Canada. ? A listing of these chemicals is available at the Environment Canada, environmental emergencies website. Should you store, or even have the capacity to store, these chemicals at above threshold values then these regulations apply to you.

If this regulation applies to your facility then the facility will have to prepare and implement an Environmental Emergency (E2) plan. ? The existence of these E2 plans will be posted on the CEPA web-site to allow public access to information on facilities within their area.

E2 plans require stated plans for prevention, preparedness, response and recovery from accidental releases. ? Such plans require recognition of hazards, risk assessment of those hazards occurring, identification of potential consequences and development of plans to deal with consequences. ? Such planning may require liaison with outside agencies and communication, and involvement with, various stakeholders including the local community.

Airzone One Ltd. and Alp & Associates Inc. have developed a comprehensive service to assist those industries that fall under the regulation. ? Alp & Associates provides risk assessment and management services, including identification of worst and alternate case scenarios for emergency planning, consequence modelling, process safety management, and development of emergency plans. AirZOne Ltd. is one of Canada s leading air quality consulting companies, providing expertise in emergency dispersion modelling required for gaseous or explosive release under emergency scenarios. ? Together both companies work seamlessly to provide assistance ranging from specialized services for specific tasks (e.g., risk assessment and release dispersion modelling), to initiating and developing an entire E2 plan for your facility.

Should you require assistance in assessing if the E2 regulations apply to you, or for E2 planning please contact Dr. DiGiovanni of AirZOne Ltd. at 905-890-6957 ext. 102 (or by email through our contact form).