Environmental Services

For industrial, commercial, municipal, agricultural and residential properties of all sizes, the Burnside team delivers a wealth of environmental experience. Whether from an historical, operational or developmental perspective, well work with you to meet regulatory compliance and limit your exposure to liability.

Agriculture Services

With extensive experience in the agricultural industry, Burnside is able to help farmers take proper care of their land and maximize its potential. Our highly qualified professionals are skilled in developing management plans for large and small agricultural operations and are focussed at all times on meeting the specific needs of the client. In addition, our intimate knowledge of agricultural systems aid in the potential reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Using Best Management Practices, we deliver practical, cost-effective systems that include:

• Manure management systems
• Nutrient management plans
• Methane capture from agricultural by-products
• Soil conservation practices
• Master planning services
• Greenhouse gas emission models for the agricultural sector

Environmental Site Assessment/Due Diligence

Environmental due diligence is an important step in avoiding potential liability costs, particularly during real estate transactions. Banks, insurance companies and property owners must be aware of environmental conditions and potential liabilities prior to a sale, redevelopment or continued use. Current and potential landowners also need to evaluate the environmental impact arising from the activities of their neighbours.

At Burnside, we recognize the importance of these kinds of assessments, and are fully versed in identifying potential risks and liabilities, as well as providing delineation and remediation as needed. Our site assessments quickly identify potential concerns, helping protect your property and in turn, reduce risk.

Environmental Impact Studies for the Mining Industry

Burnside provides a full range of environmental site assessment services for the mining industry. Our experienced staff has expertise in assisting companies with evaluating mine rock tailings and the potential for long-term liability. Studies have been conducted on mines prior to development (Voiseys Bay, McClean Lake, Pierina) during operation (Strathcona, Hemlo, Kidd Creek, Raglan, Thompson) and at closure.

The Burnside team evaluates:

• Tailings pore water chemistry under various cover designs
• Offsite migration of acidic water
• Shallow pore water flushing of acidity and metals during major rainfall events
• Evaluation of laboratory test data to determine potential loadings of contaminants to the surface environment from major rock units
• Evaluating mining-related impacts on a watershed basis
• Evaluation of short-and long-term requirements necessary to maintain mine discharge concentrations below Certificate of Approval levels

Nutrient Management Plans

Nutrients, whether they are derived from natural sources or from inorganic fertilizers are both an essential input and a major cost for crop production. From this set of conditions, it is apparent that application of nutrients must be optimized in order to achieve cost effective crop production. One advantage of ensuring optimized nutrient application is the reduction of adverse environmental impacts such as leaching of nitrogen into groundwater or the volatilization of nitrogen to the atmosphere.

As part of an overall farm service package, Burnside is experienced in developing Nutrient Management Plans for individual farms. These plans account for all livestock and poultry manures produced, their proper storage and judicious land application.

Best Management Practices are employed to manage the manure nutrients. Factors that are considered during the design of a nutrient management plan include:

• Manure types, nutrient content and quantities produced
• Soil types and acreage for land application
• Tillage practices
• Nutrient availability from existing soils
• Cropping practices and impact of crop residue
• Land application and incorporation methods
• Risk to the environment
• Financial constraints

Solid Waste Management

Burnside provides our clients with a full range of services for solid waste management related activities. We offer our clients a fresh look at their current system, their problems and opportunities by developing a comprehensive Waste Management Strategy to determine the why, the what and the how to implement economic and sustainable services for the future. Actual experience using this approach has resulted in our clients implementing advanced waste management systems that exceed the 60% diversion goal proposed in Ontario, at costs lower than their previous systems. Our technical specialists provide practical and cost effective designs that can be operated directly by our clients (municipal or private sector) or their contract agents.

Supporting these efforts are professionals in:

• system planning, existing and future capacity requirements
• GIS and transportation analysis
• hydrogeology and hydrology
• collection system design and equipment selection
• facility design and costing including:
• recycling, composting & anaerobic digestion facilities, and emerging waste reuse, recycling and destruction technologies,
• transfer stations (public and commercial),
• engineered or natural attenuation landfill
• public participation & education programs
• environmental assessment & all associated environmental approvals
• tender document preparation & evaluation
• construction management
• facility start-up
• operator training programs

Burnside has delivered these solutions to our clients both nationally and internationally. For example in the specialty area of landfill design, we have undertaken:

• peer review of major landfill designs
• remedial design and expansion of existing disposal facilities
• green-field landfill design and development (utilizing natural attenuation through to double liner with leachate collection and disposal)
• bioreactor landfill designs
• leachate collection and treatment plants
• landfill gas (LFG) systems including collection, flaring systems and LFG-to-Energy facilities.

In addition, our landfill team provides all ongoing approvals requirements; landfill monitoring & sampling; operations plans; annual reporting; operator training programs, landfill liability estimates, and site closure/post-closure plans and monitoring.

Highly Qualified Professionals

Burnside offers a team of engineers and environmental scientists that have worked on all phases of solid waste projects within Canada and in other countries. We work alongside the client throughout the entire process to help obtain consensus from all parties. It is our goal that the solution be customized to suit the needs of the local community.

System Approach

Recognizing and understanding the unique relationships that exist between various steps of a solid waste management plan, we remain sensitive to both the protection of the environment and the practical demands of budgeting. Collection, transportation, processing, material marketing and residuals management are all considered within the context of every waste processing decision.

Greenhouse Gas Expertise

Burnside is actively working on projects that have the potential to assist clients in meeting the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets that are part of the Kyoto Protocol. Focusing on the potential for landfill gas capture (methane) as an alternate energy source, Burnside offers GHG emission studies and CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) Baseline studies, an extension of the Kyoto Initiative.

Environmental Planning and Assessment

At R.J. Burnside and Associates Limited, our Environmental Planning and Assessment Group understands the environmental permitting and regulatory challenges facing our clients today. Our team is highly conversant with the environmental approvals required for your projects, be they under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act, the federal Fisheries Act, the Ontario Planning Act, or the host of other approvals processes that may apply to a given project, often which occur in tandem.

With more than 35 year of experience, our Senior Environmental Planners have worked in such diverse areas as environmental assessment, land use planning, environmental regulatory development, training and institutional capacity building, natural areas management, biodiversity and wildlife habitat assessment, multi-stakeholder consultation involving governments, First Nations and the public, and in the securing of development approvals. We have worked for both public and private sector clients in a variety of domestic and international settings, including southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, eastern Europe and the Caribbean.

Our team has prior experience working for a variety of employers, including the Ministry of the Environment, Bird Studies Canada, the United Nations Development Program, Parks Canada, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the World Wide Fund for Nature. We bring this breadth of employment experience to solutions for your environmental issues and project challenges. In addition to the services we provide in-house, our Environmental Planning and Assessment Group can also draw upon specialized sub-consultant services and Burnsides deep technical strength to bring the full suite of environmental services required to provide solutions to our clients environmental challenges. These services include:

• Botany and forest resource assessment
• Fish habitat assessment and fisheries inventories
• Wildlife habitat assessment and wildlife inventories
• Hydrogeology
• Site remediation and decommissioning
• Archaeology and cultural resource heritage assessment
• A full range of engineering services (water supply and wastewater treatment, water resources, civil, mechanical, electrical, structural)