Contaminated Sites

Contaminated Sites

Provincial legislation lays out the process for identifying and cleaning up contaminated sites. Some of the provincial requirements were updated in February 2021.

Some sites in BC have become contaminated by past or present industrial or commercial activities that resulted in chemicals or toxic materials being spilled or deposited on land.  Contaminants may exist in the soil, soil vapour, surface water, and/or groundwater.    

Site Disclosure Statements

Site Disclosure Statements (formerly Site Profiles) are used to identify potential contaminated sites.  A Site Disclosure Statement must be submitted to the City of Chilliwack for all current or former commercial and industrial properties applying for one or more of the following:

  • Subdivision
  • Zoning
  • Development Permit with soil disturbance
  • Building Permit with soil disturbance

If the property has been used for an activity listed in Schedule 2 of the Contaminated Sites Regulation, and there are no applicable exemptions, the City is required to forward the Site Disclosure Statement to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.  The Ministry made some changes to  Schedule 2 in February 2021.

There are several other triggers for Site Disclosure Statements, which get submitted to other entities.  All triggers and related submission information are outlined below:

Trigger Submit To

Subdivision

Zoning

Development permit

Building permit

City (Land Development)

City (Planning)

City (Planning)

City (Building)

Decommissioning or ceasing operations

Insolvency proceedings

Order by Ministry

Ministry Registrar 

([email protected])
Sale of property Prospective Purchaser

Site Investigations

In most cases, submission of a Site Disclosure Statement to the Ministry due to a Schedule 2 activity now automatically triggers a requirement to complete site investigations, rather than applicants waiting for direction from the Ministry.

Municipalities cannot approve the development application until the applicant provides one of the following:

  • a copy of a Determination that the site is not contaminated,
  • an Approval in Principle of a remediation plan,
  • a Certificate of Compliance or a Voluntary Remediation Agreement, or
  • a Release Notice from the Ministry

For More Information

More information about the provincial requirements is available on their Site Identification website.

 

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