More topics

Remediate a contaminated site

Last updated on February 24, 2025

 

Remediation of contaminated sites can be voluntary or required. Most property owners choose to remediate voluntarily as part of due diligence before sale or redevelopment.

If you have a site and want to clean it up voluntarily, you can choose to remediate independently or get the ministry to approve a remediation plan (Approval in Principle). An environmental professional can help you decide which pathway is best. 

On this page

Choose a remediation pathway

Start independent remediation

You can conduct this type of remediation without ministry oversight, but must notify the ministry at the start and end of remediation activities. This includes handling, managing, or treating contamination in soil, groundwater, surface water, sediment or vapour.

Notification must happen:

  • within 3 days of starting remediation, and
  • within 90 days of completing it

Note: You do not have to notify the ministry after starting remediation if:

How to submit notification

A qualified professional must classify your site once you’ve submitted a Notification of Independent Remediation. Learn about site risk classification.

Read more in legislation:

Apply for an Approval in Principle

An Approval in Principle is a document that confirms a remediation plan has been reviewed and approved by the ministry. If this is the pathway you choose, you must work with a qualified professional to create a plan. Once you receive ministry approval, you can start remediation.

Learn more about certification.

There are times when site owners are legally required to remediate a site or may be ordered to remediate by a director. For example, this might happen when a responsible person isn't willing to remediate contamination at a site that poses an immediate threat to human health and/or the environment. Read Section 48 of the Environmental Management Act for more information. 

After you’ve chosen a remediation pathway, you’re ready to start planning how to remediate your site.

Decide how to remediate a site

Physical remediation

Use physical remediation to reduce, remove or contain harmful substances in the environment to meet the Contaminated Sites Regulation (CSR) numerical standards.

There are many actions you can consider to physically remediate your site:

  • Excavation and reuse or off-site disposal of contaminated soil
  • Pump and treatment of contaminated groundwater
  • Bioremediation
  • Thermal remediation
  • Chemical or biological injection
  • Air sparging
  • Soil vapour extraction
  • Multi-phase extraction
  • Monitored natural attenuation
  • Blending, mixing, or dilution

This list is not exhaustive and is provided only as a guide. In some cases, an environmental professional might advise you to use a combination of physical and risk-based remediation. 

Information for qualified professionals 

Risk-based remediation

Risk-based remediation assesses the risk a contaminant may pose to the environment and human health if left at a site.

In some cases, you may need to use a combination of physical and risk-based remediation.

For example, you might remove most of the contaminated substance and then conduct a risk assessment on what remains. If you can't physically remove any of the contaminated substances from a site, risk-based remediation is the best option. 

This type of remediation requires a risk assessment. 

A risk assessment is a report that estimates the risks of contamination and evaluates whether actions to manage it are effective.

If a risk assessment shows that there are no unacceptable risks to human health and the environment, the site may be considered remediated to risk-based standards.

The ministry decides if the site has been remediated sufficiently and if risks are acceptable when it reviews contaminated sites services applications.

Information for qualified professionals

If you're a qualified professional and/or a trained risk assessor, find guidance about conducting a risk assessment. This guide outlines the technical requirements for risk assessments. For specific risk assessment questions, contact remFAQ@gov.bc.ca.

Understand the risks and benefits

Work with a qualified professional to plan remediation at your site. They can help you understand:

  • Whether there is any potential for adverse effects on human health or for pollution of the environment
  • The technical feasibility and risks associated with alternative remediation options
  • Remediation costs associated with alternative remediation options and the potential economic benefits, costs and effects of the remediation options
  • Impacts of future climate change and extreme weather events

You must give preference to remediation alternatives that provide permanent solutions to contamination at a site. A qualified professional can conduct a feasibility study to determine an option that meets your business needs and protects people and the environment. 

Read more in legislation:

Develop a plan to implement remediation

Once you've selected a remediation option, you can ask a qualified professional to create a remediation plan for your site. This type of plan:

  • Describes actions you'll take to ensure your site complies with the CSR's numerical and/or risk-based standards.
  • Varies in complexity depending on the nature and extent of contamination at the site

When your remediation plan is complete, remediation can begin. 

Implementation of a remediation plan may require a waste discharge authorization, for example, to discharge effluent or air emissions associated with remediation of contamination, the responsible person must apply for and obtain authorization before any discharge of waste.

There are significant penalties for failure to provide required notifications or obtain required authorizations when carrying out remediation.

When you start remediation, you may discover that one or more substances have moved to a neighbouring property and are causing (or are likely causing) contamination of that property.

If this happens, you must ensure that you meet all requirements connected to contamination migration. 

Confirm that remediation is complete

After physical remediation

A qualified professional must confirm that there's no contamination left at your site. They do this by:

  1. Collecting samples of environmental media from your site, such as soil, groundwater and vapour
  2. Analyzing the samples to confirm that no contamination remains at the site
    • If you've used a combination of physical and risk-based remediation, make sure a risk assessment is completed

Depending upon the details of the remediation plan for a site, confirmation of remediation may require several phases of confirmatory sampling over time. 

Information for qualified professionals

Review guidance:

After risk-based remediation

You must confirm that you've taken actions to contain, control and monitor any contamination that remains on your site. You may be required to submit a document called a Performance Verification Plan (PVP). This shows the actions you've taken and may help you get a certification, such as an Approval in Principle or Certificate of Compliance. 

Work with a qualified professional to complete a Performance Verification Plan. 

Information for qualified professionals

To determine whether a Performance Verification Plan is necessary, you must determine whether a site is classified as Type 1 or Type 2.

After remediation is confirmed

Apply for a certification

Certification is commonly sought upon remediation completion. 

You need to submit a Confirmation of Remediation Report and other relevant information described in Section 49: Contaminated Sites Regulations (CSR) if you want to obtain certification.

The information on this web page does not replace the legislative requirements in the EMA or its regulations and it does not list all provisions for contaminated site services.

If there are differences between this information and the Act, Regulation, or Protocols, the Act, Regulation, and Protocols apply.

Contact information

For further information:

Contact us