Unveiling under-utilized public data on Canadian industrial pollutant transfers and disposals.

Implications statement:Pollutant transfers and disposals data has not previously been widely used in environmental research. Here we demonstrate how it can be, in the context of SDG 12. Doing so can inspire more uptake by researchers and a broad range of other public users, both strengthening the justification for collecting this data, and bolstering public participation in environmental decision-making from a local to global scale. Doing so also provides the foundation for more in-depth analysis on the domestic and international transboundary movement of Canadian industrial pollutants in waste in the lens of SDG 12 - a topic that was beyond scope here but addressed.

New Sustainability Perspectives on Pollutant Releases from Canada's Nuclear Sector.

This novel characterization of new Canadian radionuclide release data aims to both deepen the understanding of the nature and magnitude of present-day emissions from nuclear facilities and accelerate the tracking of this sector's progress toward United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 (responsible consumption and use patterns) and target 12.4 (environmentally sound chemicals management). Further novel perspectives on the role of this data as an indicator of sustainability are discussed by merging it with other pollutant releases from this sector, as reported to the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI), to fill gaps in the latter's substance coverage. These public data sets are processed and analyzed using Tableau software and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's framework for using pollutant release and transfer (PRTR) data in sustainability analysis. Findings confirm that radionuclide emissions to air and direct discharges to water from present-day Canadian nuclear facilities do not contribute significantly to national-scale radionuclide contamination. Moreover, findings validate the usefulness of combining various PRTR (and similar) data to address substance coverage gaps and set a global precedent for strengthening PRTR indicator power in SDG 12 evaluation. This work underscores the value of interoperable data in accelerating knowledge translation of PRTRs in the lens of sustainable development.

Risk-based prioritization of organic substances in the Canadian National Pollutant Release Inventory using an evaluative regional-scale multimedia mass balance model.

The National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) is a Canadian inventory of facility-reported data on releases, transfers, and disposals of over 300 pollutants, but it does not contain information on chemical properties or other characteristics critical to understanding environmental and human health risks. To reconcile this gap, we use the Risk Assessment IDentification And Ranking (RAIDAR) model to integrate NPRI release data with chemical property information in a multimedia mass balance model to combine exposure estimates with toxicity hazard data yielding an estimate of risk for 198 NPRI organic substances reported in 2010-2019. The presented case study further corroborates the hypothesis that risk-based ranking gives rise to different chemical priorities versus ranking based on release quantity alone. Chemicals like propane and hexane (except n-hexane) are in the top 10 highest-ranked organic substances based on emission quantities reported to NPRI but are ranked outside the top 10 based on corresponding regional-scale risk estimates. On the contrary, dioxins and furans are ranked very low based on emissions quantities reported to NPRI but are ranked higher based on corresponding risk estimates. The results also suggest that although quantities of some NPRI organic pollutant releases change over time, the ensuing risk estimates are not always directly proportional to these changes. This can be explained by changes in mode of entry to the environment that can influence the overall fate and exposure of the same chemicals, highlighting the complex dynamics that can occur when simulating fate and risk as opposed to quantity alone. Limitations are discussed and recommendations are provided for improving the priority setting methods, including reducing the uncertainty of the NPRI data and the need for multimedia models to address point source emissions. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1722-1732. © 2022 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

Polycyclic aromatic compounds in the Canadian Environment: Aquatic and terrestrial environments.

Polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) are ubiquitous across environmental media in Canada, including surface water, soil, sediment and snowpack. Information is presented according to pan-Canadian sources, and key geographical areas including the Great Lakes, the Alberta Oil Sands Region (AOSR) and the Canadian Arctic. Significant PAC releases result from exploitation of fossil fuels containing naturally-derived PACs, with anthropogenic sources related to production, upgrading and transport which also release alkylated PACs. Continued expansion of the oil and gas industry indicates contamination by PACs may increase. Monitoring networks should be expanded, and include petrogenic PACs in their analytical schema, particularly near fuel transportation routes. National-scale roll-ups of emission budgets may not expose important details for localized areas, and on local scales emissions can be substantial without significantly contributing to total Canadian emissions. Burning organic matter produces mainly parent or pyrogenic PACs, with forest fires and coal combustion to produce iron and steel being major sources of pyrogenic PACs in Canada. Another major source is the use of carbon electrodes at aluminum smelters in British Columbia and Quebec. Temporal trends in PAC levels across the Great Lakes basin have remained relatively consistent over the past four decades. Management actions to reduce PAC loadings have been countered by increased urbanization, vehicular emissions and areas of impervious surfaces. Major cities within the Great Lakes watershed act as diffuse sources of PACs, and result in coronas of contamination emanating from urban centres, highlighting the need for non-point source controls to reduce loadings.