Bill 236 2002

An Act to amend the
Environmental Protection Act
to require the pre-treatment
of hazardous waste
before it is used as landfill

Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

1. The Environmental Protection Act is amended by adding the following section:

Prohibition as to hazardous waste

40.1 (1) In addition to the requirements under section 40, no person shall deposit, or cause, permit or arrange for the deposit of, hazardous waste as designated in the regulations in, into or through any landfill site unless the hazardous waste is first pre-treated in accordance with this section and the regulations.

Pre-treatment standards

(2) The Lieutenant Governor in Council shall develop pre-treatment standards that must be used before hazardous waste can be disposed in, into or through a landfill site.

Same

(3) The pre-treatment standards may include the adoption of existing standards and may include waste-specific treatment standards.

Incorporations

(4) The adoption of an existing pre-treatment standard as a standard may include the adoption of changes to the existing standard made from time to time after the existing pre-treatment standard is adopted if the existing pre-treatment standard is of a legislative nature.

Types of standards

(5) Pre-treatment standards shall rely on current technical treatment abilities to achieve a prescribed limit and shall be based on,

(a) processing by specific technology, including processing by incineration, by thermal recovery and by physical or chemical treatment; or

(b) meeting a specified contaminant concentration level either in leachate or in a bulk concentration.

Transition

(6) Standards for the pre-treatment of hazardous waste made under this section may be phased in over two years, but the Lieutenant Governor in Council shall develop final pre-treatment of hazardous waste standards within two years after the day this section comes into force.

Definition

(7) In this section,

"landfill site" means a waste disposal site at which waste is disposed of by placing it on or in land.

2. Subsection 176 (4) of the Act, as amended by Statutes of Ontario, 1992, chapter 1, section 34, 1997, chapter 7, section 4 and 2001, chapter 9, Schedule G, section 5, is amended by adding the following paragraph:

(a) governing the pre-treatment of hazardous waste;

Commencement

3. This Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.

Short title

4. The short title of this Act is the Environmental Protection Amendment Act (Pre-Treatment of Hazardous Waste), 2002.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Bill amends the Environmental Protection Act by requiring the pre-treatment of hazardous waste before it is disposed of in a landfill.