
ESAA Environmental Summit
April 1-3, 2025
Kananaskis Mountain Lodge
Draft Program Now Available – Early Bird registration ends February 1st
The 2025 ESAA Environmental Summit (‘The Summit’) will feature all of the things you expect from an ESAA event: great talks, great location and great networking.
The 2025 edition will take place at the Kananaskis Mountain Lodge. The completely modern getaway nestled amidst the pines and mountains. Room rates at the Lodge start at $255.00 + taxes.
The format will be a series of nine (9) panel discussions over the two-days of the conference, two networking receptions and two great keynotes. Full event details can be found at: https://esaa.org/summit/
Registration is now OPEN. Early bird rates end February – Register now at: https://esaa.org/summit/register/ ** Day passes are also available (limited quantity)
Sponsorship is now OPEN. See our the website for all sponsorship opportunities https://esaa.org/summit/sponsors/
ESAA truly appreciates your support of world-class events and looks forward to welcoming you to ‘The Summit’ at the amazing Kananaskis Mountain Lodge.
RemTech 2025
October 15-17, 2025
Fairmont Banff Springs
Call for Abstracts / Super Early Bird Registration
14 Super Early Bird Passes Remaining
ESAA is pleased to announce that early bird registration is open for the 24th edition of RemTech.
RemTech 2025 will feature technical talks, 2 receptions, 55 exhibits, networking opportunities and three great keynotes.
Keynotes:
Opening Keynote
Robert Bilott, Environmental Lawyer
Robert was instrumental in the lawsuit against Dupont over PFAS exposure in a community in West Virginia and resulted in a $1B settlement against Dupont and the basis of the movie – Dark Waters.
Thursday Lunch Keynote
Kate Moore – Author of Radium Girls
The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the “wonder” substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
Friday Lunch Keynote
Julie Angus – Explorer, Scientist, Author
First person / Woman to row solo across the Atlantic.
Registration
100 passes are available at a Super Early Bird Price. $925 Members and $1,325 Non-Members. When the 100 passes are sold, regular early bird rates will be in effect and available until May 30th. Registration details at: https://esaa.org/remtech/register/ Register Early and Save. (65 passes remaining at the super early bird prices)
Call for Abstracts
Complete details for the 2025 call for abstracts is available at: https://esaa.org/remtech/call-for-abstracts/. Submission deadline is June 13th, 2025.
Sponsors / Exhibitors
Previous sponsors and exhibitors will be contacted by early February to secure your previous sponsorship level and exhibit space. Once their deadline to respond passes, remaining spots will be offered to companies on the waiting list. For additional information contact Lorrine Hamdon, lorrine@tl2.ca
Hotel Reservations
The Fairmont Banff Springs will be accepting reservations shortly. Accommodations for RemTech™ 2025 delegates start at $289 per night plus $16 resort fee (tipping of bell and housekeeping not required) per night depending on the type and occupancy of the room. Rates do not include taxes and surcharges. Rate also includes 1 free drink (per room) at any Fairmont Banff Springs bar (valid during RemTech, October 15-17, 2025). Full details available soon along with the reservation link.
Full RemTech 2025 details can be found at: https://esaa.org/remtech/
Thank you for your continued support!
Soil Data Survey
We are reaching out about an important project funded by the Sustainable Agriculture Research Initiative of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). This initiative aims to establish the Canadian Soil Data Portal (CSDP)—a centralized platform to modernize Canada’s soil data infrastructure for greenhouse gas reduction and climate change mitigation. Led by Dr. Brandon Heung at Dalhousie University, the CSDP will address critical data gaps and improve accessibility to essential soil data across Canada.
About the Canadian Soil Data Portal (CSDP)
The CSDP will equip Canada with up-to-date, comprehensive soil data to support climate initiatives and net-zero emissions goals. Integrating recent data from public and private sources, this platform will overcome issues of fragmented data, limited access, and high analysis costs. The CSDP will facilitate efficient soil carbon monitoring through advanced soil spectroscopy and high-resolution mapping for accurate, cost-effective assessments. This unified resource will empower stakeholders to adopt sustainable practices, making climate mitigation more scalable and cost-effective across Canada.
Survey on Current Use of Soil Data Portals
As part of the CSDP initiative, Drs. Maja Krzic (University of British Columbia) and Margaret Schmidt (Simon Fraser University) are leading an educational subproject focused on developing tools for post-secondary soil science education. To ensure these tools are relevant and effective, we are conducting a survey to understand how location-based soil data—soil information tied to geographic coordinates, maps, addresses, or site labels—is accessed and used across Canada. The insights gathered will also shape future educational resources within the CSDP.
Survey Objectives
Understand how location-based soil data is used across various sectors in Canada.
Evaluate accessibility, frequency of use, and satisfaction with current soil data systems.
Identify gaps and opportunities to inform the development of the CSDP, including its applications in education and soil science.
Your Input is Essential
We invite you to complete the survey at survey link. The deadline is February 28, 2025.
Indigenous climate advocates say tailings spills study confirms what they already know
Sherwood Park-based geologist Kevin Timoney’s report, published in the peer-reviewed Environmental Monitoring and Assessment journal on Jan. 3, found that the AER has significantly under-reported spill volumes and their environmental footprints, and that the regulator had conducted routine inspections in just 3.2 per cent of tailings spills.
“This report is just another addition to a bunch of glaring reports that have come out, get some media attention and disappear,” Eriel Deranger, ICA’s executive director, told Alberta Native News in an interview. “Business continues as usual in the sector and industry.”
Last year, a report in the American Association for the Advancement of Science journal found that the Alberta Emissions Inventory Report and Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory had underestimated air pollution from the oil sands by 6,000 per cent.
“Not only are they under-reporting their emissions,” Deranger said, “but they are over-reporting their cleanup, and the AER is failing to do their job in responding to the toxic waste spills.”
Timoney conducted his research by filing a freedom of information request for all AER documents relating to 514 tailings spills reported from January 2014 to May 2023, including photos of the spill sites, and comparing them with the figures publicly reported in the AER’s field inspection system database.
In one instance, the AER publicly reported a spill of 44,596 m3, but internal AER documents revealed that the true spill volume was 4,459,680 m3.
In another spill, the AER database reported a spill’s footprint as 100 m2. In the internal documents, that figure was 465 m2, but photographs of the site revealed the latter figure too was an underestimate.
“Images show spilled bitumen, soil contamination in a large footprint, and contact with vegetation,” Timoney wrote in the study. “Both the spill volume and spill impact were visual estimates.”
Deranger, who is from Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), noted federal and provincial authorities’ well-established track record of concealing information from downstream Indigenous communities.
In May 2022, the AER notified ACFN and Mikisew Cree Nation (MCN) that discoloured water had accumulated near Imperial Oil’s Kearl mine. The First Nations heard nothing more until February 2023, when 5.3 million litres of contaminated wastewater from a holding pond leaked into the surrounding environment.
This lack of transparency isn’t confined to the AER. Transport Canada concealed a 2017 report that found the dock in Fort Chipewyan—a key transport hub in the remote community—was surrounded by land contaminated with traces of arsenic, mercury, lead, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and uranium.
“Over the last decade that I’ve been working directly with my community, I can’t tell you the amount of times that a community member, a land user or a hunter has reported foam, oil slicks, things on the water systems and stating, ‘something’s happened,’ and us being gaslit by the AER and industry to say that nothing has happened,” said Deranger.
She added that this has a major psychological impact on Indigenous communities, compounding the negative environmental and physical health effects of unchecked oil sands extraction.
“These are huge, huge violations of our Indigenous rights in the community and a failure of the government to uphold their fiduciary obligations to also ensure that Indigenous rights are protected in the pursuit of economic endeavours in the region,” Deranger said.
Melanie Dene, executive manager at ICA, expressed frustration that Indigenous concerns about what’s happening to their lands are only taken seriously when they’re validated by settler scientists.
“I feel that Indigenous knowledge supersedes Western science,” said Dene, who is from MCN. “It’s our science, our land users, our traditional knowledge holders,that have been saying this since the very beginning. They have been witnessing it for the last 50 years.”
B.C. composting company fined for leaking liquid waste
(Source: Environment Journal) A composting company that serves four million households across Canada and the U.S. has been penalized for leaking liquid waste into the environment in Squamish, B.C.
The environmental contravention occurred at GFL Environmental Inc.’s Brackendale facility, according to a decision recently released from B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Parks.
Located near the Squamish Landfill, the facility takes in, stores and processes municipal compost from the Resort Municipality of Whistler. That process produces concentrated liquid waste, known as leachate, that’s stored in ponds.
According to ministry data, in the year leading up to Feb. 14, 2024, GFL was found to be in continuous violation of provincial environmental regulations as leachate leaked into the nearby environment.
The decision from Kelly Mills, a director with the B.C. ministry, points to samples taken at an unlined settlement pond in 2023 showing copper levels in excess of contaminated sites regulation for drinking water. “Acute exposure to copper can cause mortality in fish, amphibians and invertebrates while chronic exposure can affect growth, reproduction and survival,” states Mills.
The director also pointed to water samples taken during a 2018 environmental impact assessment that showed organic runoff from the site could negatively impact aquatic wildlife, especially salmon within the Cheekye River.
However, the company has argued that the leaked waste only posed a “limited and localized” impact on the environment. GFL said the nearest receiving water body, the Cheeky River, was 250 metres away, and that the penalty should be re-classified from a “major” to a “moderate” contravention.
The company also disputed the ministry’s reliance on tests that showed heavy metal levels in excess of Canadian drinking water standards. “These results do not support a finding of any ‘actual significant impact or very serious threat to the environment,’” said the company in submissions.
The company also said the $22,0000 penalty was “too high” and should be reduced by $10,000.
Mills agreed there was no evidence of actual damage to the environment, and reduced the penalty to a “medium” contravention.
GFL said it has taken “considerable measures to improve the quality of stormwater at the site” but that “some metal exceedances” are still prevalent. As a result, the company said it would apply for a water discharge permit by Jan. 17, 2025. GFL has 30 days to either appeal the decision or pay the $22,200 penalty.
GFL, headquartered in Vaughan, Ont., is the fourth-largest environmental services company in North America, employing more than 20,000 people. The organization provides solid and liquid waste management, and soil remediation services throughout Canada and in more than half of American states.
Earlier this month, on January 7, GFL entered into a equity purchase agreement with several investment firms, limited corporations, limited partnerships and their subsidiaries — based in Delaware, Alberta, the United Kingdom and the Cayman Islands — to sell its environmental services business for $8 billion.
Document for public review and comment: Protocol for the Derivation of Environmental Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Apex Marine Mammals from Bioaccumulative Substances
Draft Protocol for the Derivation of Environmental Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Apex Marine Mammals from Bioaccumulative Substances is available for public review and comment until March 25, 2025. The document is available in English and French.
This document outlines the procedures for deriving consistent and scientifically defensible environmental quality guidelines for the protection of apex marine mammals against organic contaminants deemed to be persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic.
Please submit comments to:
Olivier Berreville
Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment
360 – 123 Main Street
Winnipeg, MB R3C 1A3
Email: oberreville@ccme.ca
Nova Scotia cleanup plan further delays the removal of toxic sludge from First Nation
(Source: Canadian Press) HALIFAX — A councillor with Pictou Landing First Nation in Nova Scotia says a cleanup plan approved by Ottawa will mean further delays in the removal of contaminated sludge that been a scourge on his community for decades.
Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault on Friday gave the Nova Scotia government the go-ahead for the remediation of Boat Harbour in Pictou County, where a pulp mill dumped effluent next to a Mi’kmaq community for more than 50 years.
The decision comes with conditions, including the creation of an advisory committee in partnership with the First Nation to identify possible locations for the long-term storage of the contaminated waste.
Pictou Landing band councillor Derek Francis said Tuesday he is baffled and angry the decision doesn’t include a plan to urgently relocate the toxic sludge away from the First Nation to one of the alternative sites he and other members of council have proposed.
“I really, truly thought this environmental racism was (finished),” he said in an interview Tuesday. “We’ve had enough of this pollution. We don’t want it buried on our land.”
The councillor said the community celebrated the closure of the Northern Pulp plant in January 2020 after then-premier Stephen McNeil decided the plant would no longer be allowed to dump effluent near the First Nation. He had expected that by now, the contaminated sludge would have been removed from the former tidal estuary.
In 2018, the province’s environment minister, Iain Rankin, referred to Boat Harbour as one of the worst examples of environmental racism in Canada.
“We’re angry. We have reason to be angry. We’ve been fighting this for 50 years,” Francis said. “We shut down Northern Pulp five years ago .… I remember celebrating when the premier called. The only thing that’s improved is that Northern Pulp has shut down. The sludge is still there.”
The conditions imposed by Guilbeault say that if a suitable location for the sludge is not found within one year, the committee can keep working on finding a solution for 10 years.
Francis called the timeline unacceptable. Failing to urgently remove the waste from the water near the Mi’kmaq community, he said, sends a message that First Nations residents are “just second-class citizens to the Canadian government.”
The federal Department of Environment and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada did not immediately provide comment.
Beverley Ware, spokesperson for Build Nova Scotia — the provincial agency overseeing the Boat Harbour cleanup — says the current cost estimate for the project is $425 million, with funding coming from both the provincial and federal governments.
Other conditions in Guilbeault’s decision include “measures to reduce effects on the Pictou Landing First Nation and the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia, including to their health (including mental health and well-being), cultural heritage, and current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes.”
The decision also said the project must take steps to reduce its impact on fish and migratory birds, and implement measures to control erosion and sedimentation to preserve wildlife habitats.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2025.
EPA warns of elevated PFOS, PFOA in biosolids as Canada marks four months of compliant inspections
(Source: esemag.com) Evaluating perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) levels in U.S biosolids is a key part of a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assessment that considers risk to human health from the “forever chemicals”.
The findings for the January 2025 draft risk assessment show that there may be human health risks associated with exposure to PFOA or PFOS for all three methods of using or disposing of what is often referred to as sewage sludge: land application of biosolids, surface disposal in landfills, or incineration.
In 2024, the EPA classified PFOA and PFOS as “likely to be carcinogenic” and linked to hepatic (liver), immunological, cardiovascular, and developmental effects, depending on exposure conditions; however, the agency has not regulated the chemicals in sewage sludge.
Once finalized, the risk assessment can help the agency determine whether regulating PFOA and PFOS in sewage sludge under the Clean Water Act is appropriate. The agency currently regulates certain heavy metals and pathogens in sewage sludge used as fertilizer, but not PFAS.
The EPA’s draft risk assessment scientifically models hypothetical human health risks for people living on or near sites impacted by PFOA or PFOS, or for people relying primarily on those sites’ products, such as food crops, animal products or drinking water.
“The preliminary findings of the draft risk assessment indicate that there can be human health risks exceeding EPA’s acceptable thresholds, sometimes by several orders of magnitude, for some scenarios where the farmer applied biosolids containing 1 part per billion (ppb) of PFOA or PFOS (which is near the current detection limit for these PFAS in biosolids),” stated an EPA announcement accompanying the risk assessment.
The EPA’s modelled scenarios include farms with one application of biosolids at a rate of 10 dry-metric-tons per hectare and 40 consecutive years of biosolids land application at this same rate. The modelling also found human health risks exceeding the EPA’s acceptable thresholds in some scenarios where biosolids containing 1 ppb of PFOA or PFOS are placed in an unlined or clay-lined surface disposal unit.
“The findings of the draft risk assessment underscore the importance of proactive federal and state policies to control and remove PFAS at their source,” the EPA announcement continued.
Public comments on the draft risk assessment can be made over the next two months.
In Canada, enforcement of an interim standard for PFAS in biosolids used as a commercial fertilizer product started in October 2024 to ensure they contain less than 50 ppb of PFOS as an indicator for PFAS chemicals.
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), 100% of all products inspected since that time have been compliant. A spokesperson for the agency told Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine that when a facility confirms they are selling biosolids for use as fertilizer, the CFIA requests a copy of their PFAS certificate of analysis to verify compliance. It must be no older than six months.
“On the domestic front, CFIA inspectors are actively engaged in contacting all wastewater treatment facilities in Canada to verify whether or not the biosolids they produce are used as commercial fertilizers in Canada (other possible endpoints include landfilling and incineration),” said a CFIA spokesperson.
PFOS has been manufactured globally for more than 50 years but never in Canada. PFOA is banned in both the U.S. and Canada, however, multiple historic and ongoing activities still result in PFOA, PFOS, and their precursors being released to wastewater treatment plants, according to the EPA.
Traditional wastewater treatment technology does not remove or destroy PFOA or PFOS, and these chemicals accumulate in the sewage sludge.
For more information, read this article from Environment and Climate Change Canada on PFAS in municipal wastewater treatment systems from ES&E Magazine’s February 2024 issue.
Upcoming Events
BEST 2025 Registration Now Open
Join us for the 12th Annual Bettering Environmental Stewardship & Technology (BEST) Conference!
The BCEIA’s BEST Conference attracts environmental professionals every May for two and a half days of technical sessions, networking opportunities, and a sponsor tradeshow.
Mark your calendars now so you don’t miss out on the “BEST” opportunity to network and learn about the current environment industry in BC!
For more information or to register visit: https://bceia.com/events-calendar/#id=142&cid=1941&wid=1601
“The Future of Site Remediation: Unlocking Faster Site Closure with AI-Powered Insights”
Building a Strategy for Wetlands – Wetland Knowledge Exchange Webinar
Start Date: Feb 19, 2025
End Date: Feb 19, 2025
On February 19th, 2025, Dr. Michelle Gordy from the North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance will present Building a Strategy for Wetlands.
Website Link To Register: https://www.cclmportal.ca/
Indigenous Perspectives in the Environment Industry
Start Date: Mar 12, 2025
End Date: Mar 12, 2025
The Earth & Environmental Science Students’ Affiliation (EESSA) MRU is partnering with Mount Royal University’s Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and the Iniskim Centre to present Indigenous Perspectives in the Environment Industry. Join us for an insightful event with Alvin First Rider (BSc., A.A.S) as we explore Indigenous traditional land management practices within the Earth & Environmental industries and their profound connection with the land.
Website Link To Register: https://docs.google.com/forms/
Mount Royal University Environment Industry Networking Event
Start Date: Feb 06, 2025
End Date: Feb 06, 2025
Details: The Earth & Environmental Science Students’ Affiliation (EESSA) MRU is hosting a networking event for students interested in working in the Earth & Environmental industry. This would create an opportunity for employers to find talent for summer positions or full-time positions post-graduation.
Website Link To Register: https://docs.google.com/forms/
ESAA Job Board
Check out the new improved ESAA Job Board. Members can post ads for free.
Current Listings:
- Environmental Project Manager – Arletta Environmental Consulting Corp
- Environmental Risk Assessor & Technical Reporter – Arletta Environmental Consulting Corp
- Environmental Professional / Project Coordinator – Ecoventure Inc.
- Junior Environmental Scientist – Trace Associates Inc.
- Junior Geoscientist – Trace Associates Inc.
- Environmental Student – Trace Associates Inc.