Federal contaminated sites long term monitoring: project management and policy

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Section IV of the FCSAP LTM Planning Guidance outlines important issues for effective project management of LTM programs. These considerations have been provided in the guidance document to highlight the need to develop the LTM plan concurrently with development of the R/RM strategy for both funding and scientific reasons.

Current practice for developing LTM plans includes implementing recommendations of a qualified firm, as well as assembling a team including the client (custodian), consultant, expert support departments (Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Environment Canada (EC), Health Canada (HC), and PWGSC), provincial or territorial governments, and other stakeholders to answer key questions, including: 

• Is the plan sound?
• Is the plan efficient?
• What media should be monitored at what locations?
• What species and what parameters should be monitored?

The questions listed above are difficult ones that must integrate best practice, professional experience, practicality of implementation, and stakeholder support. Answers to the questions may serve as a starting point for the project manager to determine reasonable, practical, defensible, and efficient monitoring rules and triggers. A large volume of expertise is accessible both within the federal government and through the network of industry consultants, researchers, and contractors affiliated with the FCSAP program. Project managers should not hesitate to seek input from an expert support department and any other members of the LTM planning team to ensure that the decision rules they wish to implement have a strong scientific basis and are also based on a well-informed overview of site-specific conditions.

FCSAP does not currently define requirements for governance of management decisions for LTM. In the absence of program-wide direction related to LTM management decision-making, it will ultimately be the custodian’s responsibility to make decisions. It is recommended that, at a minimum, the LTM plan defines the governance structure for making these decisions (i.e., the LTM plan will document who gets to make these decisions). The “who” may be different depending on the scope and particularities of the remediation project.

A large amount of expertise on developing LTM programs is available and should be consulted when assembling an effective LTM planning team. Stakeholder involvement is also critical to ensure that stakeholder concerns are addressed at the early planning stages and to facilitate acceptance of management decisions. Considerations on scaling the level of effort for LTM programs and adaptive management are discussed in the FCSAP LTM Planning Guidance.