MISA regulations become law for Ontario mines

The new monitoring regulation, being put into effect under the Ontario Environmental Protection Act, is part of the province’s Municipal/Industrial Strategy for Abatement (MISA), introduced in 1986.

According to the new law, MISA violators will face fines of up to $25,000 a day for the first offences and $50,000 for subsequent convictions. The MISA monitoring regulations for metal and salt mines became law following public comment on a draft regulation issued earlier this year.

The provincial Ministry of the Environment said the 4-month lead-in time (until Feb 1, 1990) “will allow companies to purchase and install the required equipment, as well as arrange for laboratory services and to train personnel.”

While the mining industry has no choice but to comply with the new law, there have been concerns that the monitoring system will be an expensive and complicated burden to some of the smaller mining operations in the prov ince. Of the 67 mines in the province to be affected by MISA, 36 are gold mining operations.

Each plant must sample its own wastewater discharges and have them tested to ministry specifications, with random ministry audits to verify that results are accurate and representative.

The regulation prescribes six different monitoring schedules for process effluent, mine water effluent, smelter-refinery effluent and storm water effluent. It requires all plants to monitor waste streams at weekly, monthly and quarterly intervals for various substances. Toxicity tests will be run quarterly on effluents using rainbow trout and another sensitive organism, daphia magna (water fleas).

Costs incurred under the regulation will be borne by the industry, and the ministry has estimated total capital and operating costs for all monitoring plants in the range of $13-18 million.

Estimated plant costs range from a high of $440,000 for Cameco’s Port Hope Uranium refinery to a low of $192,000 for the Canadian Salt Company’s Windsor salt mine.

The new effluent monitoring regulation was developed in consultation with the mining industry, Environment Canada, the Atomic Energy Control Board and the MISA Advisory Committee of independent environmental experts.

“The broad range of potential contaminants being tested for means we will get, for the first time, a clear picture of the water pollution produced by this industry,” said Environment Minister Jim Bradly. “We will use the detailed monitoring data we obtain to set stringent discharge limits for mines in Ontario.”

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