Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy

Stakeholder Forum - 1998

IMPLEMENTING THE BINATIONAL TOXICS STRATEGY
Implementation

Stakeholders Minutes
March 23, 1998 - Chicago, Illinois

Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) Meeting Minutes

Draft Summary
PCB Management in the Great Lakes Basin
Canada March 1998

The Canadian Challenge for PCBs in the Binational Toxics Strategy is to seek by the year 2000 a 90% reduction of high level PCBs (>1 percent ) that were once, or are currently, in service and accelerate destruction of stored high-level PCB waste which have the potential to enter the Great Lakes Basin , consistent with the 1994 COA .

The background to these challenges lies in the Canada - Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem (COA) which was signed in 1994, and identified PCBs as a Tier I substance, that is a substance that is persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic, and require immediate action to eliminate their use, generation or release in the Great Lakes environment.

Canada and Ontario agreed to:

Seek to decommission 90% of high level PCBs in Ontario, to destroy 50% of high-level PCBs now in storage, and accelerate the destruction of stored low-level PCB waste, by the year 2000.

• A baseline of 10,600 tonnes of high level PCBs in service was established by Environment Canada and used for the targets under COA.
• Similarly a baseline of 18,614 tonnes of high level PCBs in storage as waste was established by Environment Canada and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment based on a review of their inventory records and used for the targets under COA.

The 2nd Report of Progress under COA dated October, 1997 notes the following accomplishments:

Decommissioning of High-Level PCBs:
A total of 4,948 tonnes, or 46 per cent of Ontario's 1994 baseline quantity of 10,650 tonnes, of in-service high-level PCBs have been decommissioned

Destruction of High-level PCB Wastes:
A total of 5,543 tonnes, or 30 per cent of Ontario's 1994 baseline quantity of 18,614 tonnes of in storage high-level PCB wastes , have been destroyed.

• Government Progress - By March 1997, the federal government had destroyed 728 tonnes, or 85 per cent, of its stored PCB wastes in Ontario. The Ontario Realty Corporation has eliminated 38 of its PCB storage sites in central and eastern Ontario which represents over half of the provincial sites.

Starting from near "zero" in 1994, momentum to eliminate the liability of PCBs in use and storage appears to be building among PCB owners. Having a competitive market for PCB destruction and replacement will serve all owners by providing greater flexibility and cost effectiveness

Destruction Options
It should be noted that the permitting of destruction facilities for out of province PCBs, along with and the emergence of thermal chemical destruction and sodium reduction technologies , have had a major impact in moving this target forward and providing for further progress.

The Ontario Ministry of the Environment is reforming PCB regulations through proposed consolidation and simplification of existing waste regulations and by standardizing approval requirements to help facilitate new technologies. The focus is to encourage consolidation for the treatment/destruction of PCBs and to move away from long-term storage.