(MERAF) for the Base Metals Smelting Sector - CCME

3. EMISSION SOURCES AND DATA
3.1. Emissions Data Sources
3.1.1. Total Particulate Matter (TPM) and Sulphur Dioxide (SO 2 ) and
Other substances toxic pursuant to the Canadian Environmental
Protection Act (CEPA)
3.1.1.1. Strategic Options and Hatch Associates Reports
The Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) requires the Minister of the
Environment and the Minister of Health to prepare and publish a Priority
Substances List (PSL) that identifies substances that may be harmful to the
environment or constitute a danger to human health. CEPA then requires both
Ministers to assess the substances on this list and determine whether they are
toxic as defined by section 64 of the Act.
The first CEPA Priority Substances List, which was published in 1989, identified
44 substances for priority assessment. Assessment of these substances was
completed in 1994; 25 substances were declared toxic, 6 were declared nontoxic,
and for 13 substances, insufficient information was available to make a
determination.
In 1994, Environment Canada established a consultative, multi-stakeholder
Strategic Options Process (SOP) to identify and evaluate options and provide
advice to the Ministers regarding management of substances declared toxic
under CEPA. The Base Metals Smelting Sector (BMSS) releases substances
that have been declared CEPA toxic. The BMSS SOP started in July 1995. An
Issue Table be established for the BMSS SOP to prepare a Strategic Options
Report containing recommendations to Ministers regarding: “the most costeffective
options for the sector to reduce emissions of and exposure to CEPA
toxic substances; and the best means to implement the recommended options
(regulatory, voluntary, market based instrument, etc.)”.
At its first meeting in May 1996, the Issue Table (IT) agreed to focus its efforts on
the following substances (hereafter collectively referred to as the CEPA
Substances for the purposes of this Report):
• inorganic arsenic compounds;
• inorganic cadmium compounds;
• dioxins and furans;
• lead;
• mercury; and
• oxidic, sulphidic and soluble inorganic nickel compounds.
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