REGULATIONS AND POLICY

Canadian PCB Regulations and Policy

Overview | Federal | Ontario | Quebec | Federal-Provincial

EPA and OWRA | Regulation 347 - General-Waste Management | Regulation 362 - Waste Management-PCBs | Regulation 352 - Mobile PCB Destruction Facilities

Ontario Regulation 347 - General - Waste Management

Objective
Ontario Regulation 347 imposes standards for waste disposal sites and waste disposal systems (the latter generally means systems for transporting wastes, such as trucks).

Definitions
One of this regulation's definitions of "hazardous waste," found in subsection 1 (1), is "PCB waste as defined in Regulation 362" (see "O.Reg. 362"). The same "hazardous waste" definition includes exceptions that may conflict with the definition of PCB waste. For example, the definition of hazardous waste expressly excludes "domestic waste" (which is not defined further except to say that it "includes asbestos waste"). Domestic waste that happens to contain PCBs is therefore excluded from the definition of hazardous waste. The policy decision to exclude domestic waste from "hazardous waste" may hinder the effective management of PCB waste as well as other types of hazardous waste.

Description
The regulation includes obligations for registration of waste generators, and using manifests for tracking waste movements. Every waste generator who operates a waste generation facility for "subject waste" (which includes "hazardous waste", which in turn includes "PCB waste") must first register with and report to the Director under s. 18 of O. Reg. 347. (This includes any generator in another province wishing to transfer waste to a receiving facility in Ontario.) The report is to be completed as directed in the "Registration Guidance Manual for Generators of Liquid Industrial and Hazardous Waste" issued by the Ministry of the Environment. Subsequent changes to the type of "subject wastes" kept are to be sent to the Director within fifteen days of the change, and records of the waste and how they are disposed are to be maintained by the generator.

The manifesting requirements (ss. 19-27) are a fairly rigorous system of reporting and tracking waste movements whereby generators, carriers, waste disposal sites and waste-derived fuel sites (defined as those handling waste that may contain, among other substances, up to 2 mg/kg PCBs) must submit copies of multi-part waste manifests to authorities, and maintain copies for two years. For those shipments leaving Ontario or entering Ontario from other provinces or the United States, the use of federal manifests prescribed by the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act and regulations (or provincial equivalents), which similarly track the movement and ultimate destination of wastes within Canada, may be used. Copies of these "federal" manifests must be submitted to the provincial Director in this case.

Exceptions
Smaller amounts of PCBs may effectively be exempt from any regulatory provisions, because they do not meet the PCB thresholds set by Regulation 362, and/or because they do meet the concentration criteria for exemption from Part V of the Act and/or Regulation 347. Examples include the burning of waste as fuel on the site where it is generated (see s. 28.3 of Reg. 347, which exempts the establishment of a waste-derived fuel site from s. 27 of the Act, which otherwise requires a C of A), where the quality of the fuel is not worse than commercially available low grade fuel and contains less than 2 mg/kg of PCBs (definition of "waste-derived fuel site" in section 1, Reg. 347).