Database of Environmental Quality Guidelines

The Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP) program was developed to work with Federal custodians to assess and remediate federal contaminated sites under their jurisdiction. Environmental Quality Benchmarks including guidelines, standards and criteria are used under the FCSAP program as screening benchmarks for site assessments and as remediation targets. Currently, Federal and Provincial jurisdictions apply Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) guidelines and Provincial standards for this purpose; however when CCME guidelines are unavailable benchmarks from other jurisdictions must be applied. A Database of Guidelines (DoG) including benchmark values for chemicals in various media from multiple national and international jurisdictions has been developed to facilitate screening and remediation processes for federal contaminated sites. Moving forward, Environment Canada's objective will be to maintain this database as a current, up-to-date, and comprehensive resource, available to federal custodians, contaminated sites managers, regulators from various jurisdictions, and the general public. The DoG is a compilation of environmental quality guidelines from different jurisdictions, and should be used as reference only. The primary documentation should always be consulted before the application of a guideline, to ensure that its use is appropriate and scientifically defensible. Custodians using the DoG for screening or remediation purposes should be aware that the DoG is considered up to date as of December 31st, 2012 and is not guaranteed to have the most recent guidelines.