Environmental Compliance Approvals

Documentation of the Air and Noise Emissions from your Ontario Site

We work closely with your team and review the processes that support your operation. We will carry out the necessary assessments, calculations and dispersion modelling to help you find a suitable submission to appease the Ministry’s orders. We provide detailed records and provide solutions when needed. Sometimes it is a matter of providing proof that you are within acceptable limits. Let us help.

Do you have a Provincial Order from the Ministry?

Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) officers issue provincial orders to facilities that release contaminants into the environment without proper documentation. This documentation such as an Environmental Compliance Approvals (ECAs) and Environmental Activity and Sector Registry (EASR) are requirements issued by the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) to ensure protection and compliance with environmental regulations in Ontario.

All facilities in Ontario are required to operate in compliance with Ontario’s Environmental Protection Act (EPA).

Under Section 9 of the EPA:

“ No person shall, except under and in accordance with an environmental compliance approval,

(a) use, operate, construct, alter, extend or replace any plant, structure, equipment, apparatus, mechanism or thing that may discharge or from which may be discharged a contaminant into any part of the natural environment other than water; or

(b) alter a process or rate of production with the result that a contaminant may be discharged into any part of the natural environment other than water or the rate or manner of discharge of a contaminant into any part of the natural environment other than water may be altered.”

This statement requires any facility discharging a contaminant in any amount to obtain an Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA). For the purposes of an ECA, a contaminant is classified as anything other than water, and includes chemical emissions, dust, vibrations, noise, and odour.

Alternatively, some facilities are prescribed by the regulations under  the EPA, and are instead required to register their operations on the Environmental Activity and Sector Registry (EASR).

Common examples of where an ECA or registration on the EASR may be required include:

  • Spray paint booths

  • Mobile rock crushers and other mobile equipment

  • Boilers

  • Cooling towers

  • Boilers

  • Natural gas fired HVAC equipment

  • Printing facilities

  • Manufacturing operations

  • Chemical processes

  • Large fans and other significant noise sources

  • Emergency and back-up generators