Interesting statistics on brownfields

 According to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, a significant number of Records of Site Condition has been posted to the Brownfields Environmental Site Registry since October 1 2004, when regulation 513/04 came into effect.

As of early this month,  a total of 1747 RSCs had been filed.  Of these,

• 397 RSCs have been filed to the BESR, based  only on a Phase I ESA
• 1288 RSCs have been filed to the BESR, based on a Phase 1 and 2 ESA
• 62 RSCs have been filed to the BESR, based on a Phase 1 ESA, Phase 2 ESA and Risk Assessment.

Of the 62 RSCs based on risk assessments, approximately 34  had certificates of property use. On average, each risk assessment went through three rounds of Ministry review, requiring 12-18 months.

The ministry continues to hope that its Tier 2 process will be considerably more efficient. It is calling for volunteers to test drive the tier 2 process, in an effort to “ground truth” numerous stakeholder concerns.