Provincial Campaign
A Low-Salt Diet for Ontario's Roads and Rivers
A joint RiverSides and Sierra Legal Defense Fund campaign
A Low-Salt Diet for Ontario's Roads and Rivers highlights current regulatory inconsistencies with respect to the use of road salts for winter road maintenance in Ontario. Road salts have been determined to be an environmentally toxic substance under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA). Despite the finding that road salts are environmentally toxic, there are no mandatory requirements for managing road salts storage, application or snow disposal in Ontario. Of fundamental concern is Ontario's Regulation 339, which exempts road authorities' use of substances that are considered environmentally harmful from the provincial Environmental Protection Act. This exemption prevents the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) from issuing Certificates of Approval with conditions for road salts storage, application and snow disposal. The MOE is also prevented from issuing pollution prevention and abatement orders relating to excessive road salts application.
This report will be used to educate governments and the public about the regulatory inconsistencies that currently exist in both provincial and federal policies and offers recommendations for regulatory reform. Our recommendations are aimed at improving the protection of freshwater ecosystems and drinking water sources, thus achieving a more appropriate balance between ecosystem protection and winter road maintenance. Polling indicates there is strong public support for reforming Ontario's ecosystem protection laws with respect to road salts management.
A Low-Salt Diet for Ontario's Roads and Rivers. RiverSides Stewardship Alliance and Sierra Legal Defence Fund, February 2006.
This report forms the basis of an Application for Review under Ontario's Environment Bill of Rights, 1993. This Application requests that Regulation 339 be immediately revoked and, in its place, a phased-in road salts management regime under the Environmental Protection Act be implemented. Recommendations are also offered regarding Bill 43 (the proposed Clean Water Act), and mandatory reductions in speed limits during winter conditions and mandatory requirements for snow tires under the Highway Traffic Act, all of which support a new road salts management regime.
Environmental Bill of Rights, 1993 - Application for Review of Ontario Regulation 339 (pdf)
Finally, A Low-Salt Diet for Ontario Roads and Rivers offers specific recommendations to the federal government that will provide national and international support for mandatory regulation of road salts acorss Canada, and specfically within the Great Lakes Ecosystem Basin.
RiverSides and Sierra Legal Defence Fund would like to thank the Joyce Foundation for its generous support of this project.
For more information contact:
RiverSides at 416-868-1983 or riversides@riversides.org
Sierra Legal Defence Fund at 416-368-7533 or sldfon@sierralegal.org