Environmental Assessments

Environmental Assessments (EA) are required under municipal, provincial and federal processes, for capital major projects. Kilgour & Associates has been involved in numerous EA’s over the past several years in support of local infrastructure including roads, piers, bridges and airport expansion. For projects requiring EA we participate in various capacities. We most frequently provide expertise in “on-the-ground” inventories of aquatic and terrestrial environments, and produce reports on the natural environment that is incorporated in EA submissions to regulatory agencies. We are often then further engaged to negotiate environmental mitigations and setbacks, as they arise.

Working for the Ottawa International Airport, we completed a federal screening EA to support the realignment of Sawmill Creek, where it outlets from the airport’s stormwater management (SWM) facility. The SWM pond is ‘controlled’ by an electronic sluice gate. The channel downstream of the pond and sluice gate was eroding because the channel had previously been designed (and excavated) to include a 90-degree bend. We worked with the design engineer to soften the bends, and to incorporate natural riparian vegetation that would support banks of the channel. We also carried out field studies to determine if there were ecological sensitivities such as species at risk. We followed up our field studies with the federal EA, then assisted in the construction of the project, being on site and monitoring the quality of water leaving the site to the downstream watercourse.

Working for the Peterborough Municipal airport, we completed a federal screening environmental assessment (in association with Bolivar~Philips). We carried out field programs to document ecological sensitivities, and to determine if there were any ecological constraints to the proposed project. We also engaged with local regulatory agencies, and negotiated mitigations and compensations, as required. The project (runway expansion) moved ahead as planned, on schedule, without any delays caused by ecological findings.

Environmental Impact Studies (EIS)

Potential impacts from land development on more obvious natural heritage features, such as significant woodlands or wetlands, are normally assessed through an Environmental Impact Study or Assessment (EIS or EIA, depending on the municipality).

Headwater Drainage Feature Assessment (HDFA)

The Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) is a consolidate statement of the government’s policies on land use planning, giving direction on key land use planning issues that affect communities. The PPS calls for consideration of headwater features during the land use planning process. Headwater features are the smaller wetted areas across sites that, at some point in the year, connect to larger watercourses downstream. These include swales, irrigation ditches, or small wetland pockets.

The presence of these features rarely triggers a call for an EIS directly. However, while they may not be as obvious in their importance to the ecology of the broader area as perhaps a forest, cumulatively, they provide many important services to larger watercourses nearby. Headwater features furnish downstream areas with water and nutrients, they support benthic communities that feed fish, and often provide important, albeit temporary, fish spawning habitat.  Prior to completing an EIS or an EIS, conservation authorities across Ontario are now requesting Headwater Drainage Feature Assessments (HDFA) to assess these smaller features and to provide management recommendations to be considered and applied through the EIS/EIA process.

Kilgour and Associates has staff certified in the HDFA protocol ready to advise clients on the best management of headwater resources. Management recommendations from the HDFA can range from how to best protect the most sensitive of these features to how to incorporate Low Impact Design (LID) principals into a development plan to ensure the services provided by less sensitive headwater features are still provided, even as those features are moved or altered.