NPRI Activity Summary: December 2013 — by Allan Mumby, Epcor / CWWA representative on the NPRI Working Group

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After several years on the back burner the NPRI workgroup has returned to action. The NPRI workgroup is a multi-stakeholder group that includes representatives from major industrial sectors in Canada, including the CWWA, ENGO’s, aboriginal associations and, of course Environment Canada. Provincial representations from Ontario and some of the other provinces are also usually invited to participate. For more information on this workgroup, its make-up, mandate and history follow this web link.

For the past several years the workgroup has not had much to do as Environment Canada restructured their organization, worked on internal coordination with other Federal programs such as the Chemical Management Plan and focused NPRI development on making the current program easier to access for reporters, data users and the general public. Fortunately the concepts of continual improvement have not been ignored by the NPRI staff and they are once again fully engaging the workgroup to advance the development of the NPRI program.

Several initiatives have been put in motion some having a direct effect on wastewater treatment reporters. Environment Canada helped everyone by implementing a two-year Gazette notification policy which they have done with the latest notice covering the 2012 & 2013 reporting years. Several substances are proposed for addition to the list of NPRI substances. Thallium has been proposed for addition starting with the 2014 reporting year at a threshold of 100 kg. While this is a new substance to report the burden to do so is not expected to be much for wastewater treatment reporters since single heavy metal analyses usually includes a whole suite of metals including Thallium. There is a list of 10 substances being proposed for addition as well and this list includes PAH’s that will be of interest to wastewater reporters. The entire list of proposes can be found following this link.

With any consultation process the best results are gained when large numbers of stakeholders participate. Environment Canada sends out notices to all reporters when changes are being proposed or other important information needs to be shared. If you have input to give you are encouraged to contact the NPRI office directly or to contact the CWWA office and have your voice heard.

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