News release

New Policy Improves Clean Up of Home Oil Spills

Environment and Labour (Oct. 2000 - March 2008)

ENVIRONMENT/LABOUR--New Policy Improves Clean Up of Home Oil Spills


The province has established a new policy that will ensure all domestic oil spills are cleaned up in a consistent manner by qualified contractors and site professionals.

The policy will require all contractors to be registered, trained and certified by the Nova Scotia Environmental Industry Association starting Jan. 1, 2003. In addition, site professionals who are already qualified will also be required to register through the association.

Up to now, if a homeowner had a spill, they had to follow the same process that a company would follow for a large commercial incident. This would involve hiring a consulting firm to oversee the cleanup, which adds time and expense to the project. The new policy improves the process for homeowners by certifying contractors to manage the entire cleanup in certain instances.

For information on the certification and registration process, or to get a copy of the policy, visit the association's Web site, at www.nseia.ns.ca .