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Canadian environmental effects monitoring: experiences with pulp and paper and metal mining regulatory programs.
S. L. Walker*, S.C.. Ribey, l. Trudel, and E. Porter
National EEM Office, Environment Canada, 351 St. Joseph Blvd, Place Vincent Massey, 8th fl., Hull, Quebec, Canada, K1A 0H3
(*Author for correspondence: e-mail: sherry.walker@ec.gc.ca; Tel: (819) 953-1571)
Abstract
In Canada, Environmental Effects Monitoring (EEM) programs
exist within two regulations: the Pulp and Paper Effluent Regulations
and the new Metal Mining Effluent Regulations under the Canadian Fisheries
Act. EEM provides a biological, effects-based feedback loop to assess the
effectiveness of technology-based regulations in protecting receiving
environments. The promulgation of the Pulp and Paper Effluent Regulations,
in 1992, represented a significant step forward in the Canadian regulatory
approach by incorporating directly into a regulation a requirement to assess
the effects of effluent discharges on receiving environments using proven
scientific monitoring methodologies. Similarly, an assessment of the aquatic
impacts of mines resulted in recommendations to amend the Metal Mining
Effluent Regulations, recently promulgated in 2002, and includes an EEM
program as a science-based feedback loop. As such, these regulations recognize
the possibility that national, technology-based standards may not necessarily
protect all receiving environments because of the diversity and variability of
both discharges and receiving sites across the country. Since that time, EEM
has improved its flexibility by considering both advances in science and the
uniqueness of monitoring sites across Canada to allow the most appropriate and
cost-effective monitoring approaches at each site while maintaining national
consistency. This paper discusses the use of monitoring under two Canadian
regulations to assess effects on aquatic ecosystems. As well, the National EEM
approach to maintaining up-to-date scientific practices in a national
regulatory program is discussed using examples.
Keywords
aquatic monitoring, metal mining, pulp and paper
Article ID: 5141345
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