ASPHALTopics | Spring 2018 | VOL 31 | NO 1

ENVIRONMENT
COMMITTEE Update
by Bruce Armstrong
It seems that environmental issues are increasingly a part of our business, and the OAPC Environment
Committee’s activities are growing accordingly. The mainstay topic remains a technical standard for
Benzo(α)Pyrene (BaP) and possibly other contaminants for asphalt plants.
In 2017, the BaP Subcommittee and representatives from
the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC)
completed the Rationale Document for the Technical
Standard, and we are now waiting for the MOECC legal
team to develop the final draft. Meetings continue
with MOECC to discuss the option of adding other
contaminants to the Technical Standard.
In the meantime, we are addressing ongoing updates
to the Environmental Practices Guide, and work is being
done to develop resources that producer members can
use to help deal with community complaints.
Two recent postings on the MOECC Environmental
Registry (EBR) could have a significant impact on our
industry. The first is a plan to dramatically reduce allowable
emissions of sulphur dioxide ( SO 2
) which would affect any
operations where liquid fuels are burned (portable plants,
crushers, generators, etc.). In consultation with Andrew
Hurd, ORBA Director of Policy and Stakeholder Relations,
ORBA and OAPC both responded to the MOECC with
comments.
The second EBR posting outlines a plan to establish two
zones in the province (one in the Sarnia area and one in
the Hamilton/Burlington area) where efforts will be made
to address the cumulative effects of BaP and benzene.
Under the proposed changes, industries operating in these
areas would be required to undergo significant technology
benchmarking reports as part of any Environmental
Compliance Approval (ECA) applications and potentially
be forced to adopt the best available engineering controls
to reduce emissions. Comments to this posting have been
submitted to the MOECC as well, and we will be working
closely with Andrew Hurd to tackle these important issues.
As part of the amalgamation with ORBA, representatives
from both the OAPC and ORBA environment committees
met on January 19, 2018 to discuss current and new issues,
and explore more effective organizational options. We
found that while the issues that the two committees have
been dealing with are complimentary, there has not been
a lot of overlap – the ORBA Environment Committee has
been working on topics such as excess solids management,
permits to take water and invasive species, while the OAPC
committee’s work is focussed more on items specific to
hot mix production. In the next months, we expect to see
recommendations from the committee chairs as to how
we can expand the good work of both groups without
duplication and make best use of available resources.
With all this on the go, it’s no surprise that at our strategic
planning session held in January, the OAPC board along
with ORBA executive identified environmental issues as a
priority for 2018!
Bruce Armstrong is Director of Sales
for Canadian Asphalt Industries Inc.
SPRING 2018 35