Thomas Cavanagh Construction Limited - Environmental Compliance Approval (air)

Comments received directly from the public and through the city of Ottawa were reviewed and, where appropriate, were considered in our decision whether or not to proceed with this proposal.

Comments were consistent with concerns within the ministry and, as a result, terms and conditions were added. The applicant has demonstrated that when operated in accordance with this approval, the air and noise emissions from the approved equipment would be in compliance with this ministry’s applicable acts, regulations and guidelines, specifically, s. 9 of the Environmental Protection Act, O. Reg. 419/05: Air Pollution: Local Air Quality and noise guidelines, including ministry air quality standards and guidelines.

1. Concerns related to air emissions focused on dust emissions from the normal operation and onsite activities such as on-site traffic and outdoors material handling. There were also comments regarding emission assessments in the submission package.
    

   The applicant has then provided updated documents to include assessments of more contaminants and sources, and refined the modelling assessment to increase the conservatism. As a result of considering the public concerns and in order to ensure ongoing compliance with applicable standards, the applicant is required to perform the following actions as conditions of the ECA:

   • ensure operation restrictions to be consistent to the basis of the emission assessment such as equipment operating periods, on-site traffic, etc.
   • implement and update annually, the proposed Best Management Practices Plan (BMPP) to control fugitive dust emissions and collect site specific data (silt loading, moisture contents) as per MECP Technical Bulletin, summarizing the progress on the implementation of the BMPP for that year
   • develop and implement an air quality monitoring program, when requested by the ministry, to measure the concentration of dust emissions and to monitor the dust mitigation measures
   • develop and implement detailed complaint response procedure for recording, investigating and adequately addressing complaints


2. Concerns related to noise emissions referred to the proximity of residential receptors to the facility, the noise classification of residential receptors, necessity to mitigate dominant sources and the frequency of truck traffic.
    

   During the approval process the residential receptors were identified as Class 2 and Class 3 as appropriate and consistent with the comments received. Taking in consideration the comments received (pertaining to noise) noise conditions placed within the ECA refer to:

   • required noise mitigation both physical and administrative
   • frequency of truck traffic restricted for day, evening and nighttime
   • limiting frequency of dominant source operations for day, evening and nighttime
   • acoustic audit condition to ensure facility is operating as proposed and within guidelines