Acronyms
AMP – Adaptive Management Plan
ANSI – Life Science Area of Natural and Scientific Interest
EMS – Environmental Management System
ESA – Endangered Species Act
FSC – Forestry Stewardship Council
GAAP – Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
GHG – Greenhouse Gas
Go Carefully Zone – area where aggregate extraction operations will be permitted for certification provided that net gain provisions have been met
GUDI – groundwater under the direct influence of surface water
IPZ – Intake Protection Zone
JESA- Jefferson Salamander
MNR – Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
MOE – Ontario Ministry of Environment
NEP – Niagara Escarpment Plan
EN – Environment Natural
EP- Environment Protection
NGO – Non-Governmental Organization
NHS – Natural Heritage System (Core and Linkage)
No Go Zone – area “set aside” for protection. Siting of aggregate extraction operations cannot be certified
OMB – Ontario Municipal Board
ORM – Oak Ridges Moraine
PAC – Public Advisory Committee
PSW – Provincially Significant Wetland
SERA – Socially and Environmentally Responsible Aggregate governing body
SERA Standards – Socially and Environmentally Responsible Aggregate Standards
SOP – Standard Operating Procedure
WHPA – Wellhead Protection Area
Adaptive Management Plans
An AMP accompanies a complete and scientifically sound aggregate licence application. The AMP is a systematic approach to engineering design, implementation, and monitoring as well as to related policy choices that recognizes risk, uncertainty, and variability in the natural environment. An AMP puts in place the mechanisms to ensure that the success of the intended protection of the natural environment, as well as private and municipal drinking water supplies, is understood, and appropriate adjustments to an implemented proven mitigation system can be made, if necessary.
Application of an AMP requires specific performance targets along with procedural and system checks and balances. Comprehensive monitoring tracks actual behaviour and establishes whether targets are being met. If targets are not met, monitoring provides information to help explain why not, and ensures that appropriate response actions are undertaken. Response actions are defined for routine and contingency scenarios. Conditions are established up to and including cessation of operations should successful implementation not be achieved. There must be at least one “oversight” authority for the implementation of the AMP by the operator. Typically, the AMP would be expected to be a condition of licence for the operation and may have other appropriate approval authorities, as well.
Aggregate extraction activities
The identification, siting, design, operation and rehabilitation of a stone, sand or gravel site.
Applicant
Applicant for certification of an existing or proposed aggregate site and operation under this Standard
Avoidance, Mitigation and Compensation Measures
Avoidance, Mitigation and Compensation is the attempt to offset potential adverse effects of human activity on the environment. Several off-set options exist:
a) Avoiding adverse impacts by not taking an action.
b) Minimizing impacts by limiting the degree of action.
c) Rectifying by repairing, rehabilitating, or restoring the affected environment.
d) Reducing or eliminating impacts over time through operational design, active engineering (mitigation) measures, preservation and maintenance activities.
e) Compensating for an impact by replacing or providing substitute resources or environments. In most mitigation agreements, more of a resource or habitat, and in particular, its ecological function(s), must be provided than was originally present. Provision can be in the form of planned rehabilitation and/or off-site enhancements. Spatial and component ratios, as appropriate, greater than 1:1 are required in part to compensate for unrealized losses and the inability of technology to completely restore the natural environment. Other spatial and temporal considerations are also paramount i.e. proponents cannot extend all of the creation of habitats, woodlands, or “net gain” benefits (as defined in the Glossary and Appendix 2) out for years or decades or vast distances away from the affected site.
Except for the avoidance option, most mitigation efforts assume that some loss or change of natural heritage and water resources is permissible. Mitigation is to be proven before extraction begins; this may occur in a phased or staged approach.
Proven mitigative measures
Proven mitigative measures focus on offset options c) and d) above. A certain level of professional and technical expertise is assumed in the design and implementation of the mitigative measures.
Proven measures shall be defined as:
- Ones that have been implemented in the field, on site or explicitly linked to the specific hydrogeologic and ecologic setting (via another site with directly comparable conditions and similar mitigative purpose), at a relevant demonstrative, spatial and temporal scale, with unambiguous observational data that clearly and conclusively demonstrates system performance that meets pre-defined system objectives.
- In some circumstances, the demonstration of proven measures may also be through specific examples and may draw from broader examples of standard/proven engineering solutions (e.g. we know pumps work, we know settling ponds work, we know discharge works, etc.). Such circumstances may occur when the same experienced operator (or person engaged by the operator) plans to apply standard science/engineering techniques used at one operation in a new way or setting to achieve environmental protection or benefits at another site. Another example is when the same experienced operator (or person engaged by the operator) plans to use measures that have been demonstrated to perform successfully at another of their own sites. In the latter situation, measures that are to be relied upon as primary mitigation measures (as opposed to contingency measures that are not anticipated to be necessary), that are not in widespread use (e.g. hydraulic control buttresses) should be demonstrated on site prior to extraction that may result in a negative impact without their use.
To the extent there remains uncertainty at the time of approval, checks (eg, staged ARA approvals (1 – 5 years), etc.) can/should be put into place to ensure the implementation is successful and a cessation of operations is required should successful implementation, following approval, not be achieved.
Measures, monitoring, reporting and compliance matters are to be resolved via regulatory approvals.
If and when long-term management and monitoring systems are required, such systems are to be accompanied by commensurate financial sureties.
Chain of custody
The process used to maintain and document the history of the unbroken path a product takes to the consumer, including all stages of manufacturing and distribution.
Financial Security
Financial security shall be in the form of Letters of Credit, endowment or trust funds or such other form of security so as to ensure that the responsible regulatory body can operate the aggregate site and/or manage any required mitigation systems in the event that the operator fails to comply with its commitments, such that there is no financial burden on the public.
Financial security for rehabilitation of aggregate sites shall be in the form of accrual on the corporate balance sheet using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Alternatively, financial security can take the form of a deposit into a rehabilitation trust account, with oversight provided by the SERA governing body.
Key Hydrologic Features
Key hydrologic features include:
- Permanent and intermittent streams and rivers
- Lakes (including kettle lakes)
- Seepage areas and springs
- Wetlands and vernal pools
Natural Heritage System
A “natural heritage system” is a system made up of natural heritage features and areas linked by natural corridors necessary to maintain biological and geological diversity, natural functions, viable populations of indigenous species, and ecosystems. These systems can include lands that have been restored and areas with the potential to be restored to a natural state. In making its determinations, SERA will refer to the boundaries of provincial, regional and local Natural Heritage Systems and will accept and work with the expert-based evidence of NHS Core and Linkage functions inside and outside of designated NHS and similarly designated and functioning areas with significant natural features and functions that are close to dense population centres.
Natural Heritage System Core
The natural heritage system’s core represents its most sensitive or significant natural features and functions.
For the purposes of this document NHS Core includes:
- NEP (EN & EP)
- ORM (Natural Core)
- Greenbelt Protected Countryside within NHS
- PSW
- ANSI (excluding Earth Science ANSI’s designated as a result of the underlying geology and related resource uncovered by aggregate operations)
- Significant Woodlands, as defined in this document
- WHPA- A and IPZ-1
- Significant Wildlife Habitat, as defined in this document
- Habitat of Endangered and Threatened Species. If this habitat is addressed in accordance with provincial and federal requirements, the Core Area definition shall not prohibit extraction and certification.
The purpose of these core areas is to maintain and, where possible, improve or restore the ecological integrity of an ecosystem by:
(a) Protecting and, where possible, improving or restoring, the health, diversity, size, and connectivity of key natural heritage features, hydrologically sensitive features and the related ecological functions;
(b) Protecting or restoring natural self-sustaining vegetation and wildlife habitat, particularly significant wildlife habitats and significant woodlands;
(c) Maintaining the quantity and quality of groundwater and surface water, particularly Provincially Significant Wetlands;
(d) Maintaining groundwater recharge;
(e) Maintaining natural stream form and flow characteristics; and
(f) Protecting significant landform features.
Natural Heritage System Linkage
The natural heritage system linkage represents those features and functions that connect core areas to, or within, local, regional and provincial scale natural heritage systems. For the purposes of this document, NHS Linkage includes:
- NEP Rural
- Greenbelt Protected Countryside outside NHS and existing operations in NHS as per section 4.3.2(c) and (d) of Greenbelt Plan
- ORM (Natural Linkage and Countryside)
- Key hydrologic features
- Significant valleylands
- Sandbarrens, alvars, savannahs, and tall grass prairies
- Habitat of rare and special concern species
- Fish habitat in accordance with provincial and federal requirements
- WHPA – B/E/F, WHPA – C inside of Greenbelt, IPZ-2 and designated vulnerable areas
- Significant Wildlife Habitat subject to defined removal and replacement approach described in this document
The purpose of these linkage areas is to maintain, and where possible improve or restore regional-scale open space linkages along agricultural lands, cultural meadows, early successional woodland, hedgerows, parklands, recreational areas, hazard lands, infrastructure corridors, lower quality river valleys and stream corridors by:
(a) Maintaining, and where possible improving or restoring, the health, diversity, size, and connectivity of key heritage features, hydrologically sensitive features and the related ecological functions;
(b) Maintaining, and where possible improving or restoring natural self-sustaining vegetation over large parts of the area to facilitate movement of plants and animals;
(c) Maintaining a natural continuous e.g. north-south or east-west, connections and additional connections to river valleys and streams or forested areas
Net gain
“Net gain” is broadly defined as a net environmental benefit – based on the values of environmental indicators. In an ecological context, the word “net” refers to the value of the ecological benefits associated with a new change (activity or development) less the development’s associated ecological losses. For the purposes of these standards, net gain is above and beyond responsible and timely rehabilitation and will be implemented on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the provisions established by the SERA governing body. Full realization of “net gain” is spatially, component, and temporally sensitive and cannot extend out years or decades, or at distances outside of the eco-region.
No Negative Impact
In regard to natural heritage features and areas or ecological functions for which an area is identified, no degradation that threatens the health and integrity of the natural features, due to single, multiple or successive development or site alteration activities.
The Natural Heritage Reference Manual should be consulted for further understanding.
Peer-Review Process
Peer - Someone of equal standing with another, belonging to the same professional group or having the same professional status
Peer review is a generic term for a process of review of work by others or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field in order to ensure the work meets a specified criteria.
Performance Indicator
A performance indicator is the evidence that an auditor would look for in determining if the requirements of the standards have been met.
Public Advisory Committee (PAC)
A committee with a diversity of interests that represents the public’s views during consultation on;footprint design and planning for a proposed aggregate extraction site, as well as ongoing operations and rehabilitation.
SERA Governing Body
The SERA governing body will be an independent not-for-profit organization governed by representatives from community, industry, environmental and non-governmental NGOs. A position in the governance of SERA for First Nations community involvement has been provided should they wish to be engaged. The SERA Governing Body will work to finalize development of the Standards, establish a voluntary certification system in order to promote more responsible aggregate extraction and implement the certification system in accordance with the objects of incorporation and governing by-laws.
Significant Wildlife Habitat
Wildlife habitat means areas where plants, animals and other organisms live and find adequate amounts of food, water, shelter, and space needed to sustain their populations. Specific wildlife habitats of concern may include areas where species concentrate at a vulnerable point in their annual or life cycle and particular areas which are important to migratory or non-migratory species (PPS 2005).
Significant means, in regard to wildlife habitat, ecologically important in terms of features, functions, representation or amount, and contributing to the quality and diversity of an identifiable geographic area or natural heritage system (PPS 2005). This excludes habitat of Endangered and Threatened Species as it is dealt with under separate policy (NHRM page 83).
Significant Wildlife Habitat Discussion
Significant Wildlife Habitat is listed as one of the components of the natural heritage policies contained in the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS, section 2.3.1). In general, section 2.3 of the PPS requires that “natural heritage features and areas will be protected from incompatible development” and that development and site alteration will be permitted on or adjacent to these areas “if it can be demonstrated that there will be no negative impact on the natural heritage features or ecological functions for which the area is identified.”
The assessment of impacts from proposed aggregate operations should take into account the ecological system that sustains individual species populations (i.e. species live and interact with other species, abiotic factors and ecological functions), proposed off-site habitat enhancements (replacement areas) and progressive and final site rehabilitation.
Identification of Significant Wildlife Habitat should follow the methods described in the Significant Wildlife Habitat Technical Guide.
Removal and Replacement Approach
Significant Wildlife Habitat removed to permit aggregate extraction should be replaced in a manner that demonstrates the following:
- An area of wildlife habitat is created that is of a 3: 1 replacement ratio within the Greenbelt and 1.5: 1 outside Greenbelt, measured against the area of wildlife habitat removed;
- Wildlife habitat replacement is substantially achieved in advance of Significant Wildlife Habitat removal. During aggregate extraction, Significant Wildlife Habitat replacement proceeds in a progressive and phased way, in order to replicate, in large measure, the ecological features, functions and linkages of the area to be removed;
- The Significant Wildlife Habitat removal and replacement plan is peer reviewed and approved at certification as per the net gain provisions of this Standard. The habitat removal and aggregate extraction on it occurs when habitat replacement is substantially achieved to the satisfaction of the certifier.
- Wildlife habitat is established to achieve the maximum ecological benefits feasible for a given site; and
- Best management practices should be employed when undertaking the removal and replacement work.
Significant Woodlands
Woodlands are defined by the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS 2005) as:
“…treed areas that provide environmental and economic benefits to both the private landowner and the general public, such as erosion prevention, hydrological and nutrient cycling, provision of clean air and long-term storage of carbon, provision of wildlife habitat, outdoor recreation opportunities, and the sustainable harvest of woodland products. Woodlands include treed areas, woodlots or forested areas and vary in their level of significance at the local, regional and provincial levels.”
“Significant” means:
“… in regard to woodlands, an area which is ecologically important in terms of features such as species composition, age of trees and stand history; functionally important due to its contribution to the broader landscape because of its location, size or due to the amount of forest cover in the planning area; or economically important due to site quality, species composition, or past management history” (PPS 2005).
Treed Areas that are not Significant Woodlands
The following types of treed areas should not be evaluated by the significant woodland criteria:
- Plantations managed for the production of Christmas trees;
- Plantations managed for the production of nuts, fruits, or nursery stock;
- Plantations primarily managed for tree products rotation of < 20 years;
- Plantations primarily managed for the production of wood fibre as outlined in a Forest Management Plan that has been reviewed by the MNR;
- Woodlands which are substantially dominated by invasive non-native tree species such as buckthorn (Rhamnus sp.) or Norway maple (Acer platanoides); and,
- Woodlands that do not have a minimum width of 40 m.
Areas of Significant Woodlands that can be considered for aggregate extraction provided that appropriate replacement is achieved through off-site enhancements and site rehabilitation described in the Removal and Replacement Approach:
- Other plantations of low ecological diversity as demonstrated by a lack of native trees in the canopy or sub-canopy and/or native trees as regenerating saplings or seedlings and/or native shrubs and/or native herb species
- Early successional woodland/forest habitats (previously non-wooded, currently regenerating areas), and with trees aged 20 years or less;
- Other cultural woodlands;
- Less than 20% * of large significant woodlands (40 ha and larger) on the applicant’s land holdings, one-time, provided that an equivalent existing significant woodland area is permanently retained on the applicants land, (and includes a Forest Management Plan focused on natural heritage values and management to occur during active phases of extraction) in addition to the removal and replacement ratios described below; and,
- Woodland that extends as a finger or lobe less than 200 metres wide and less than 250 metres long, which extend from a square, rectangular, oval or round block of woodland. Any woodland removal should not divide one woodland into two.
* this indicative level will be further examined for ecological justification and operational practicality on the ground as the Standard is field-tested and key performance indicators developed. Refinement (lowering) of the removal percentage may be warranted based on this work.
Removal and Replacement Approach
Significant Woodlands removed to permit aggregate extraction should be replaced in a manner that demonstrates:
- An area of woodland is created that is of a 3:1 replacement ratio within the Greenbelt and 11/2:1 outside Greenbelt, measured against the area of significant woodland removed; and
- Significant woodland replacement is substantially started in advance of Significant Woodland removal. Replacement proceeds in a progressive and phased way, as aggregate extraction phasing proceeds, in order to replicate, in large measure, the ecological features, functions and linkages of the area to be removed; and
- Woodland is established to achieve the maximum ecological benefits feasible; and
- The Significant woodlands removal and replacement plan is peer reviewed and approved at certification as per the net gain provisions of this Standard. Peer review and certification will confirm proposed area for removal does not conflict with other elements of the No Go table and will evaluate factors such as change in status of woodland (i.e. no longer meeting criteria for significant woodland), interior woodland/habitat, proximity to watercourses, connectivity and linkage functions, sufficiency of forest cover in regional context. In cases, where the applicant has very large woodlands (hundreds of hectares or more), a maximum total allowable cut may be warranted. The woodlands removal and aggregate extraction occurs when replacement is substantially started to the satisfaction of the certifier.
Best management practices should be employed when undertaking the removal and replacement work. For example:
- Woodland restoration is monitored and adaptive management is used to ensure success, including where necessary watering, replacement of failed plantings, removal of exotics, etc.;
- Woodland soil is salvaged where available and transferred in a timely manner to restoration areas;
- Woodland understory plants are salvaged where feasible and transferred in a timely manner to suitable restoration areas; and
- Woodland restoration may include enhancement plantings following initial plantings to increase native biodiversity and to restore native shade tolerant trees, shrubs and herbs.
Track Record
The applicant or persons employed or engaged by the applicant can demonstrate acceptable performance against set standards. Performance shall be defined as:
- That of the company at the site, other sites owned or managed by the company;
- Processes initiated and implemented by the company at the site, other sites owned or managed by the company; or
- The direct work of an employee or consultant, including work by employees or consultants done prior to being engaged by the company.
When evaluating track record, the certifier may have regard to the track record of affiliated companies.
An applicant with an unacceptable track record, including affiliated companies, cannot overcome the said unacceptable record by drawing on the provisions of this paragraph.