Legislation and Regulation
Return to Contaminated/Impacted Sites
Contaminated Sites Remediation Act (CSRA)
Contaminated Sites Remediation Regulation (CSRR)
The Contaminated Sites Remediation Amendment Act
Amendments to CSRR
Reporting Requirements
Section 3.1 of the CSRA states that the owner or occupier of a site must notify Environment and Climate Change in writing when he or she becomes aware of information that indicates that the site has been contaminated at a level that exceeds a standard established or adopted by regulation (CSRR); and provide Environment and Climate Change with all reports and any other documentation in their possession respecting the contamination at the site. Reports should be forwarded to the Contaminated Sites Program.
NOTE: The standards and rules listed below are to determine if it is necessary to submit a site report to Environment and Climate Change. For risk assessment purposes, these standards and rules do not necessarily have to be used as the risk assessment criteria. Please see the link to risk assessment criteria.
The standards for reporting established or adopted by regulation (CSRR) are divided into Primary Standards, Secondary Standards and Tertiary Standards, as follows:
Primary standards
Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines, 1999-present
Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, Canada-Wide Standards for Petroleum Hydrocarbons (PHC) in Soil, 2008
Health Canada, Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality - Summary Table, 2022
Secondary Standard
Tertiary Standard
Government of Alberta, Alberta Tier 1 Soil and Groundwater Remediation Guidelines
The following rules are to be applied to determine which standard is to be used:
Rule 1
If a standard for a contaminant in relation to the applicable site conditions is provided in a primary standard, this standard is to be used.
Rule 2
If a contaminant is not listed in a primary standard or if none of the primary standards address the applicable site conditions, the secondary standard is to be used if the secondary standard addresses the specific contaminant and the applicable site conditions.
Rule 3
If a contaminant is not listed in the primary or secondary standards or if the primary and secondary standards do not address the applicable site conditions, the tertiary standard is to be used if the tertiary standard addresses the specific contaminant and the applicable site conditions.
Regardless of risk assessment criteria used to assess site conditions in the report, if contaminant concentrations exceed the standards and rules outlined above, the report must be submitted to Environment and Climate. Therefore if different criteria were used to assess risk within the report and concentrations did not exceed those values, but they were above the reporting standards and rules, the report still must be submitted for review.
