REGULATIONS AND POLICY

International Agreements

Stockholm Convention on Persistant Organic Pollutants (POPs) | PCB North American Regional Action Plan (PCB NARAP) | Canada-US Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy (GLBTS)

Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

In May 2001, 115 states and regional economic integration organizations signed the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. The POPs Convention will come into effect once 50 countries have ratified it. Canada and Fiji were the only countries to have ratified the Convention as of December 2001. The United States also signed the convention but had not yet ratified it as of the end of 2001.

The objective of the POPS Convention is to "protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants."1 PCBs are one of the twelve POPs specified in the Convention.

The POPs Convention requires the following actions on PCBs:

• Immediately eliminate the production of PCBs [Article 3 1.(a)]
• By 2025, eliminate the use of PCBs in equipment [Part II (a)]
• Eliminate the export or import of equipment containing PCBs except for "environmentally sound waste management" [Part II (c)]
• Immediately eliminate the recovery of liquids containing PCBs at levels above 0.005 per cent for reuse in other equipment, except for maintenance and servicing operations [Part II (d)]
• Within two years, develop an action plan with the goal of the "continuing minimization and, where feasible, ultimate elimination" of the release of PCBs from unintentional production through methods such as incineration [Article 5 (a)]. "Best available techniques" and "best environmental practices" are to be used for existing and new sources of releases. For Canada, Mexico, and the United States, it is expected that this action plan will be developed through the North American Regional Action Plan system, which is described in the next section of this report.
• Develop inventories of PCBs in use and in stockpiles [Article 6 (a)]Dispose of PCB wastes "in such a way that the persistent organic content is destroyed or irreversibly transformed so that they do not exhibit the characteristics of persistent organic pollutants or otherwise disposed of in an environmentally sound manner when destruction or irreversible transformation does not represent the environmentally preferable option or the persistent organic content is low" [Article 6 1.(d)]
• Develop strategies to identify sites contaminated by PCBs and "if remediation of those sites is undertaken it shall be performed in an environmentally sound manner" [Article 6 1.(d)]

The POPS Convention provides "general guidance" on how to define "best environmental practices" and "best available practices" [Part IV]. This guidance states that "priority should be given to the consideration of approaches to prevent the formation and release of [POPs]." The measures for achieving this are defined to include the "use of low-waste technology." The guidance under best available techniques states:

When considering proposals to construct new facilities or significantly modify existing facilities using processes that release chemicals listed in this Annex [this includes PCBs and dioxins and furans.], priority consideration should be given to alternative processes, techniques or practices that have similar usefulness but which avoid the formation and release of such chemicals [Part IV B].

This guidance would apply to destruction techniques.

Footnote: Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants Article 1.