Proposed Amendments to the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations - Discussion Document
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As covered in the December issue of the CWWA Bulletin - Environment and Climate Change Canada recently published consultations on proposed changes to the WSER. These changes are intended to fill gaps in the transitional and temporary authorization provisions and additional improvement to the Regulation. ECCC presented the proposed amendments during the CWWA webinar series,
ECCC is proposing amendments to the transitional and temporary bypass authorization provisions of the Regulations to address comments and concerns raised as well as amendments to address implementation issues and administrative challenges. The goal of the proposed amendments is to enhance regulatory clarity, strengthen environmental protection, and improve transparency.
Further information on the status of proposed amendments can be obtained on the ECCC Consultations on Wastewater webpage.
Transitional Authorizations
ECCC is proposing to provide eligible owners/operators of wastewater systems another opportunity to receive a transitional authorization to the end of 2030 or 2040. This recognizes the level of effort, time, and investment that is needed to bring these systems into compliance. It would provide low to medium risk communities with the time to plan and finance upgrades to their wastewater treatment systems as originally intended under the Regulations.
The new application process is proposed to be based on the existing eligibility criteria in section 24 of the Regulations. It requires a comprehensive demonstration that the system consistently fails to meet the CBOD and/or SS effluent quality limits and that the wastewater system is not designed to meet secondary level of treatment. The new application process will continue to utilize the existing systems of points in the Regulations designed to evaluate the level of risk associated with a system. The criteria taken into consideration include the system’s daily volume, effluent quality, sensitivity of the receiving environment and if applicable, the impact of combined sewer overflow points.
Temporary Bypass Authorizations
ECCC has considered a number of approaches to include temporary bypass authorizations from the non-final discharge point under the Regulations. This includes simply applying the existing provisions to these types of releases, or developing new provisions to manage these releases.
Based on feedback received in early engagement, ECCC is proposing to create new temporary bypass provisions in the Regulations for both final and non-final discharge point applications. This would allow the application of a more rigorous approach to all planned releases throughout the wastewater infrastructure. A tiered approach would set authorization conditions based on the level of potential environmental impact of the release. The existing provisions would be used as a starting point with tiers added to strengthen environmental protection and transparency, and streamline where it is relevant to do so.
