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The ministryhas more than doubled the size of its compliance program from 20 staff in 2015 to 48 staff in 2016, spokesman David Karn noted. The report marks the first time that details of compliance inspections are being publicly shared, the ministry says.

The ministry also works closely with the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations and the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission to coordinate oversight of compliance in projects that have received an environmental assessment certificate.

The Environmental Management Act regulates industrial and municipal waste discharges, pollution, air quality, hazardous waste and contaminated site remediation.

One-quarter of the compliance investigations last year — more than any other sector — involved mines, evidence of increased attention following the breach of the Mount Polley tailings dam in 2014. The coal industry received special attention in the Elk Valley, or southeast coal block, where Teck has five coal mines.

Wood processing, ranging from log sorting to furniture manufacturing, was the focus of 18 per cent of compliance investigations, while residential waste management, which includes municipal sewage operations, ranked third at 13 per cent.

The report noted that not all non-compliances pose a threat and that the vast majority are administrative in nature or have minor, temporary impacts to the environment.

Many of the sites inspected are large, complex operations that must comply with many general regulations, as well as site-specific conditions, the report adds. If any one parameter is out, the whole inspection is marked out of compliance, regardless of how few or how minor the non-compliances may be.

“Just because a regulated party is out of compliance, it does not necessarily mean they are a bad operator or there has been environmental damage,” the report states.

lpynn@postmedia.com

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