Developers and banks are expressing strong concern to the Ministry of the Environment about the impact of proposed standards for contaminated sites. Half of all sites that are now considered “clean” would be forced into risk assessment under the new numbers, and the new “streamlined” risk assessment process really isn’t. Some of the new numbers are so low that labs cannot reliably quantify them.
The MOE seems unimpressed. It argues that the new numbers are based on sound science and recent data; older numbers are less stringent only because they are out of date. The MOE may offer more time to reach the new standards, and should do something about the numbers too low to measure, but it seems unlikely to abandon the new numbers as a whole.