British Columbia Contaminated Sites Regulation Omnibus Update

Additional method development, the revision of analytical packages and the construction of new packages has been underway at ALS. This bulletin serves as a comprehensive guide on grouping of parameters and analytical packages to meet the new standards in support of industry clients. Our new analytical packages provide total flexibility to our clients by combining the most commonly requested parameters in standardized analytical runs. There is also recognition that for specific sites, projects or industry activity, only select parameters may be preferred for reporting. All parameters in a given standard package will be analyzed by the laboratory, but only those requested will be reported. Clients will need to specify which parameters are to be reported at the time of initial sample submission. If additional parameters that are part of the standard package are required at a later date, ALS can offer the convenience of retrieving and reporting additional test results for a nominal reprocessing fee for each request rather than having to undertake a more costly resampling and reanalysis program. 

Note that all of the following parameters will be included in the ALS standard packages by default as of November 2017. Customized parameter packages can also be created upon request for large projects – simply contact your ALS Account Manager with your product specifications. In the case where fewer parameters are required, please list those parameters and/or the customized package names on the chain of custody form at the time of sample submission.

Additional less common or new parameters are also available as alternate packages or by special request. See tables on following page for full details of these common standard packages.

Reporting and Guideline Comparison

Online web access reports are available through ALS Webtrieve. These reports can be generated by ALS clients at any time. The report options include screening tools with colour-coded highlighting of guideline exceedances of the most conservative standard where more than one numerical value exists. This report option may assist with rapid screening of data.

Additionally, the ALS customized criteria-based EXCEL files are available through Webtrieve or by request through your Account Manager. This report can be used to compare the total concentration results against limits of the standard that are equal to or above the upper limit. The report assists the process of classification by removing the need for cross checking any manual comparison of a large number of data points.

References: October 31, 2017 – Stage 11 Amendments to the Contaminated Sites Regulation