river, there was limited access to the cofferdam, so guys would
park their personal vehicles around 200 metres from the river,
even if it was 20 below and they had things to carry,” he said.
“The biggest thing is to make sure you establish enough lead
time to plan to meet environmental requirements.”
The environmental management plan
When operating in an environmentally sensitive area, an environmental
management plan (EMP) will likely be required,
especially if the work takes place near a watercourse. For a
recent major sewer project, West Shore Constructors Ltd. was
required to create a 30-foot deep trench with sheet piles. At
one location, the trench crossed a creek, so the creek water had
to be transported across the trench through a steel pipe, and
later restored. The dewatering of the trench and the discharge
of groundwater required an erosion and sediment control
plan. These plans were only part of the project EMP.
All in a day’s work for most piling contractors, but “a concern
arises if the client’s not sophisticated enough to understand
their environmental obligations,” said Kaufman. “As a contractor,
it would be unwise to proceed until you’re satisfied that the
environmental concerns and challenges of the project have
been identified.”
Certainly, there’s no end to the surprises that can crop up on
the job site, as one company had to implement a waste management
plan to avoid attracting bears, says Chris Lee, principal
with environmental consultants AquaTerra Environmental
COVER STORY
Ltd. of Vancouver. In that particular case, he said, “they had
to step up specific waste management protocols to secure and
transfer waste off the site every day.”
Another project resulted in “the confirmation of an archaeological
site close to the area, which they had to cordon off as
a designated no-go zone.” The site was found as a result of an
AIA: Archaeological Impact Assessment, undertaken as a precautionary
measure.
Lee is currently working on a project “where we identified
an endangered plant species. If it is determined to be within
the area of construction, it will have to be moved. We call that
‘translocation,’” he added
Producing an EMP can be a lengthy undertaking.
“It typically involves some fieldwork, background
review and determining what receptors exist – fish, mammals
or birds, for example – that might be impacted. In
some cases, bridge spans or pilings might be in a location
where birds are nesting, requiring monitoring and mitigation,”
said Lee.
He lists a roster of legislation that must be complied with,
such as the Migratory Birds Convention Act, the Wildlife Act,
the federal Fisheries Act and the Species at Risk Act…among
others. And the regulatory climate is in a constant state of
change, necessitating consulting expertise to ensure that compliance
is maintained.
“Certainly the requirements for Project Environmental
Assessment have changed over the last few years. The emphasis
is to push it away from federal to provincial regulators
through changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment
Act that were put through four or five years ago,” said Garth
Taylor, vice president and partner with Hatfield Consultants
Partnership of North Vancouver.
“In British Columbia – and I think in most provinces –
larger projects usually go through a provincial process, and
then there are specific conditions where you would either have
a joint federal-provincial process or would be overseen by the
federal Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA),”
he said. These would generally be trans-boundary projects,
such as linear infrastructure or a bridge across a waterway that
is also a jurisdictional border.
The typical EMP table of contents includes a project
description plus an assessment of habitats within the project
area, and documentation of environmental management (who
is responsible for what?), orientation, training and potential
environmental impacts.
Graham Piling use of biodegradable oil
GRAHAM CONSTRUCTION
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