This tabular data contains environmental discharges (spills) in Saskatchewan with limited information outlining best known location, confirmed substance and quantity. This data is limited to events that occurred before January 1, 2015. Information is not always complete, please contact the Ministry of Environment for further details. The Ministry of Environment's Environmental Protection Branch (EPB) is responsible for responding to incidents where a substance has been discharged into the environment. Under The Environmental Management and Protection Act 2010 (EMPA, 2010), “discharge” means a discharge, drainage, deposit, release or emission into the environment. These records include locations and details of discharge incidents in the Province of Saskatchewan and are currently limited to incidents that were reported to the ministry prior to January 2015.  The Discharge Date is when the Ministry created the record. This is not necessarily the date of the discharge event. We will continue to improve the quality of the information in the table.  As it is validated it will move to the map format, consequently you may notice changes from the table to map format.  Information related to discharges after Janurary 2015 to present are currently found at: https://geohub.saskatchewan.ca/datasets/saskatchewan::discharge-cases-spills/about For further information, please contact the Ministry of Environment Inquiry Centre (Toll Free): 800-567-4224, email: centre.inquiry@gov.sk.ca or visit: Hazardous Spills Reporting.

The Ministry of Environment is responsible for Hazardous Substance and Waste Dangerous Goods Storage in Saskatchewan. Storing hazardous materials and waste dangerous goods in accordance with the Hazardous Substances and Waste Dangerous Goods Regulations (HSWDG), helps to avoid environmental impacts or risk to human health. To minimize these risks, the regulations ensure storage facilities are constructed, operated and decommissioned properly. The Ministry of Environment must approve the construction, alteration or expansion of a facility to handle hazardous substances or waste dangerous goods. All hazardous substance storage facilities require construction and operating approvals. Owners also require an approval from the Ministry of Environment to dismantle or decommission equipment used to store and handle hazardous substances and waste dangerous goods when they are no longer in use. For further information, please contact the Ministry of Environment Inquiry Centre (Toll Free) at 1-800-567-4224,  centre.inquiry@gov.sk.ca or visit the hazardous materials storage page on saskatchewan.ca.

This map data displays environmental discharges (spills) in Saskatchewan with location, confirmed substance and quantity. This data is limited to events that occurred between January 1, 2015 to present. The Ministry of Environment is responsible for responding to incidents where a substance of potential concern has been discharged into the environment. The Environmental Management and Protection Act, 2010 defines this as a discharge, drainage, deposit, release or emission into the environment.We are currently improving how this information is displayed. This map provides information on more recent discharges that were reported to the ministry. For older Spills, please go to our new GeoHub page: Discharge Cases (Spills) historic incidents”Please note: information may take up to 30 days to be updated and is subject to change at any time.For further information, please contact the Ministry of Environment Inquiry Centre (Toll Free): 800-567-4224, email: centre.inquiry@gov.sk.ca or visit: Hazardous Spills Reporting.

This map data displays environmentally impacted sites in Saskatchewan with location, confirmed substance and current status. The Ministry of Environment is responsible for regulating environmentally impacted sites in Saskatchewan to protect the environment and the public.  An environmentally impacted site is an area of land or water that contains a substance that may cause or is causing an adverse effect.An adverse effect is an impairment of or damage to the environment or harm to human health caused by any chemical, physical or biological alterations or any combination of them.Please note: information may take up to 30 days to be updated and is subject to change at any time.For further information, please contact the Ministry of Environment Inquiry Centre (Toll Free): 800-567-4224, centre.inquiry@gov.sk.ca or visit the environmentally impacted sites page on Saskatchewan.ca. Terms and definitionsObject ID: An internal GeoHub record ID number. This number can be ignored.  Case ID: The Case ID is the ministry’s file number – a unique identifier. It is NOT the date the site became impacted.  Status – The stages of management for an environmentally impacted site.   Notification: The ministry has received notification that pollutants have been discovered at the site.  The concentration of this pollutant exceeds the threshold outlined in the Saskatchewan Environmental Code and must be reported. The pollutants may cause an adverse effect to the environment or human health. The ministry has been made aware of this and has determined that the site is an environmentally impacted site. Assessment: The site is currently undergoing, or has recently completed, analysis to determine the cause, nature or extent of potential or existing adverse effect (e.g. a Phase 2 Environmental Site Assessment). Corrective Action Plan: The site is currently undergoing, or has recently completed, activity that aims to prevent, minimize, mitigate, remedy or reclaim adverse effects (e.g. removal of impacts by excavation). Closure: This is a historical status term for environmentally impacted sites that is no longer used. The Notice of Site Condition status replaces the former status of Closure. It indicates that corrective actions have been completed at the site, endpoints have been achieved and an updated environmental status of the site has been provided to the ministry. However, no application has been made for a Notice of Site Condition certificate.  Notice of Site Condition: The ministry is satisfied that an acceptable risk level exists for the area of the site addressed in the corrective action plan. Confirmed substance: The substances of concern at the site. Examples that may cause an adverse effect are petroleum hydrocarbons, toxic metals, air pollutants, acids and solvents.

The Planning for an Environmental Response (PIER) initiative falls under the umbrella of the Government of Canada's Oceans Protection Plan (OPP), whose goal is preserving marine ecosystems vulnerable to increased transportation and the development of the marine industry (https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/backgrounders/2016/11/07/canadas-oceans-protection-plan-preserving-and-restoring-canadas). The PIER was established in response to recommendations made in a 2013 report "A review of Canada's ship-source spill preparedness and response regime " by the Tanker Safety Expert Panel (https://tc.canada.ca/en/marine-transportation/marine-safety/tanker-safety-expert-panel). One of the recommendations calls on Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to work with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to collect and compile information on sensitive species and environments for each Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) response area and make it publicly available. The PIERs’ main mandate is to acquire and update biological sensitivity data under its jurisdiction for preparation and response purposes in the event of an oil spill. With DFO-Science, PIER supports ECCC's National Environmental Emergencies Centre (NEEC) and the CCG in their preparations and responses through the sharing of data on biological sensitivities, the development of response tools and expert advice. In this vein, DFO published an analysis in 2018 that aimed to identify the most vulnerable components of the St. Lawrence in order to prioritize them during data collection if gaps were identified (Desjardins et al. 2018). This exercise highlighted the vulnerability of several biological components and important data gaps, particularly in coastal areas. As a result of this finding, the Quebec region PIEI team embarked on a collaborative project with the Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR) to map eelgrass beds, tidal marshes and macroalgal beds. In consultation with other DFO-Science data producers, this team has also created datasets adapted for response purposes, notably regarding bivalves and marine mammals. These layers may be used for oil spill preparedness and response by DFO-Quebec Region's Environmental Incident Coordinator, NEEC and CCG. Several of them, deemed relevant in the first 72 hours following a spill, have been transmitted to the NEEC.