Planning Site Profiles
(excluding Mines Act and Petroleum and Natural Gas Act requirements)
Schedule of Fees & Charges
Site Profile Application Form from the BC provincial government's website
This document does not replace the requirements of the Waste Management Act or related regulations. This document is written from the perspective of the general public and does not list ALL the provisions which exist with respect to site profiles submitted by Municipalities as land owners and other provisions. If there are differences or omissions in this guide, the Act and regulations apply.
Do I Need to Complete a Site Profile?
In general,
• Site profiles were not required until April 1st, 1997 when the Waste Management Amendment Act (Act) became law.
• There must be a reason stated in the Act for a site profile to be completed and submitted. Site profile forms submitted as a complaint are not considered site profiles under the Act and are not subject to the site profile processing requirements.
• There is NO requirement to complete and submit a site profile on April 1, 1997 when the Act became law just because you own a site with a particular activity on it. You must be doing the things described below to require a site profile.
Specifically,
1. Have any of the activities listed in Schedule 2 of the Contaminated Sites Regulation occurred on your site?
If "NO", then you don't have to complete a site profile UNLESS the municipality asks you to complete parts of a site profile for their records. (end of process)
If "YES", then you MAY have to complete a site profile. (carry on)
2. Are you making an application for:
• subdivision,
• zoning,
• development or development variance permits,
• demolition,
3. Are you decommissioning a site?
4. Are you taking over a property as a trustee, receiver or liquidator?
5. Are you selling property which has or had a schedule 2 activity on it?
If any of the above are "YES", then you WILL have to complete a site profile UNLESS one of the following statements exempts you.
Site Profile Exemptions
These exemptions DO NOT APPLYif you are taking possession or control of a schedule 2 activity
property as a trustee, receiver or liquidator. A site profile is always required in this situation.
A) The site has a site profile on the Site Registry which reflects your current knowledge of the site.
B) Your development or variance permit application does not require soil excavation.
C) The demolition permit application is not associated with decommissioning the site.
D) The demolition permit application relates to temporary petroleum, natural gas, mineral or geothermal exploration or development facilities.
E) The site is already under an official order from BC Environment.
F) The site already has an Approval In Principle, a Certificate of Compliance or a Conditional Certificate of Compliance from BC Environment.
G) If the site was cleaned up prior to April 1, 1997, it has a BC Environment letter saying so and the clean up is still consistent with the proposed land or water use.
H) The site is already been officially determined to be a contaminated site by BC Environment on the Site Registry.
I) The site is part of an official "wide area remediation plan" AND the site profile would be required due to the contamination that the wide area remediation plan addresses.
J) For property sales:
• if the purchaser says in writing that they do not require a site profile.
• at the time of sale, the property is used for residential purposes, OR has always been zoned as residential.
If one of these statements applies to your site, you will not be required to complete a site profile.
Be prepared to provide proof.
The Site Registry provides information concerning the site assessment and clean up process.
Access to the Site Registry is generally done through BC OnLine.
How Do I Complete a Site Profile?
In general,
1) There is normally a site profile form attached to this guide. If not, get a site profile form from either your local municipality or BC Environment Office.
2) You must complete Section I, II and III, answer ALL questions in sections IV through IX, and sign section XI for the site profile to be considered satisfactorily completed.
3) The person completing this site profile is responsible for the accuracy of the answers. Questions are to be answered to the best of your knowledge.
4) If the site profile is not satisfactorily completed, it may result in delays in getting an approval.
5) A municipality may ask you to complete Section I, II, III and XI at the time of an application for their own records. These site profiles will not normally be sent to the BC Environment manager.
If such a site profile is forwarded, the municipality will notify you with their reasons before they send the site profile to the BC Environment manager.
Specifically,
Section I Contact Identification
1) 'Name of Site Owner' means the person(s) or organization(s) who owns the property.
2) 'Person Completing Site Profile' can be the same as the site owner, or someone submitting the site profile on the owner's behalf and their authorization.
3) 'Person to Contact Regarding the site profile' can be the same as the site owner or the person completing the site profile. However, the Person to Contact must be responsible for communicating the results of the site profile submission to the site owner.
Section II Site Identification:
1) One (1) site profile may be completed for a site comprised of more than one titled or untitled parcel, but individual parcels must be identified.
2) For urban sites:
• In general, most urban sites are legally surveyed, titled and registered and will have PIDs (Parcel IDentifiers). You can obtain PIDs for your site from your local Land Titles office.
• All PIDs must be provided for each parcel contained by the site as well as the each parcel's legal description.
3) For remote sites:
• If the site is untitled Crown land (i.e. no PID number), then the appropriate PIN numbers (Parcel Identification Numbers) for each parcel with the appropriate land description should be supplied if available. Contact your local Crown Lands office to get this number.
• If there is a PIN available, but it is for a large area (e.g. > than a 1 km2 ), please provide the associated PIN, and also the information required below for very remote sites.
• For very remote sites, sometimes a PID or PIN number isnot available. In this case, please provide the following:
a latitude and longitude using the 1983 North American Datum accurate to 0.5 of a second of the centre of the site is required.
an accurate map, containing latitude, longitude and datum references, which shows the boundaries of the site. Please use the largest scale map available.
• If available, the Crown Land File Number for the site should also be supplied.
Section III Commercial and Industrial Purposes or Activities
1) Review the Commercial and Industrial Purposes or Activities list (Contaminated Sites Regulation, Schedule 2) provided on page 8 of this guide.
2) Using the best of your knowledge, identify if one or more of the activities listed on page 7 of this guide have occurred on your site either now or in the past.
3) Enter the identifies activities' reference numbers (e.g. A1, E 7 etc.) AND the related written description (e.g. adhesives manufacturing or wholesale bulk storage, road salt storage facilities etc.) in the space provided.
4) If you CAN'T identify any listed activities, re-read "Do I Need to Complete a Site Profile" because it's likely that you don't.
Sections IV, V, VI, VII, VIII and IX
1) All questions must be answered to the best of your knowledge.
2) Each question must be have an 'X' in either the YES or NO column to indicate your answer.
Section X Additional Comments and Explanation
This section allows further opportunity to provide information to the municipality or the BC Environment Manager concerning the site and to the put any 'YES' answers in context.
And finally,
Section XI Signatures
The 'Person Completing the Site Profile', in addition to answering all the above questions, must also sign and date this section for the submission to be considered complete.
Section XII Official Use
This section does not require any information from you. This section is for the local governments and BC Environment to complete.
To Whom and When Do I Submit a Site Profile?
Generally, many of the applications to the municipality or the approving officer need discussion and clarification before proceeding. The site profile is considered 'received' at the time the application is finalized and officially received. If you have determined that you must complete a site profile, and have completed a site profile, the site profile should be submitted to the following:
1) to an approving officer with a subdivision application.
2) to a municipality with an application for zoning, development or variance permits, soil removal and demolition permits.
3) For decommissioning a site:
· to a municipality with a demolition permit if required, OR
· to a manager 10 days prior to dismantling
4) to a purchaser from the vendor 30 days prior to the transfer of actual ownership or at least provided before the agreement date. There is NO requirement to submit this site profile to a manager.
5) to a manager from a trustee, receiver or liquidator within 10 days of taking control of a Schedule 2 activity (page 8) site - always. Normal site profile exemptions do not apply for this requirement.
6) to a manager on ordering a site profile be prepared.
Municipalities which have 'opted out'
A municipality and/or an approving officer can choose not to receive site profiles. This means the following:
• Site profiles which would normally go to a municipality or approving officer with an application are not required by the municipality or approving officer.
• Site profiles received by other means related to an application are not under the same requirement and will be processed as time permits.
What Happens Then?
Once a satisfactorily completed site profile has been received by a municipality or approving officer, they have 15 business days to do the following:
1) Forward any site profiles to the BC Environment manager if there are any 'YES' answers in sections IV to IX. Otherwise, the site profile is sent to the Site Registrar and the application approval process proceeds.
2) Notify the applicant whether or not the site profile has been forwarded to the BC Environment manager.
Once a BC Environment manager receives the site profile from the municipality or approving officer, the manager has 15 business days to do the following:
1) Determine if a site investigation is needed, and
2) Notify the related municipality or approving officer and the applicant of the decision.
The BC Environment manager can extend the time necessary to reach a decision by an extra 15 business days by notifying the applicant.
Timing Considerations
In summary, the time requirements are as follows:
• Once a satisfactorily completed site profile is officially received by a municipality or approving officer, they must act within 15 business days.
• Once the BC Environment manager receives the site profile from the municipality or approving officer, the manager must act within 15 to 30 business days.
Time impacts on the various application's approval will differ depending upon the decisions at both levels of government. Also, site profiles will normally be sent by mail and this will add to the processing time.
How Do I Get More Information?
More information is available from BC Environment's Regional and Victoria offices.
A copy of the Waste Management Amendment Act and Contaminated Sites Regulations can be obtained at cost at the following address:
Crown Publications Inc.
521 Fort Street
Victoria, BC V8W 1E7
Telephone: (250) 386-4636
Facsimile: (250) 386-0221
Orders generally are mailed out the next business day.
Additional information concerning the Act and regulations may also be found on the internet:
Waste Management Amendment Act
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/cpr/statutes/sdocs/bill26.html
Contaminated Sites Regulation (Effective April 1, 1997)
http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/stat_reg/regs/elp/r375_96c.htm
Contaminated Sites Program Information
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/epdpa/iwhc/cshome.html
Last Update : Monday, November 20, 2006