Complying with Environmental Legislation On-Farm, including the Nutrient Management Act, 2002

We are updating this page to reflect current regulations.

Information on this page about regulations under the Nutrient Management Act, 2002 and the Environmental Protection Act is out of date. On September 18, 2009 new regulations affecting those applying non-agricultural source materials on agricultural lands were filed. Please visit www.ontario.ca/nasm-omafra for more information.

The information contained in this document is derived from the Nutrient Management Act, 2002 and O. Reg 267/03 as amended. Every effort has been made to make it as accurate as possible, but is is not authoritative. Please refer to www.e-laws.gov.on.ca or the official volumes printed by Publications Ontario for the authoritative text of the act.

The Ministry of the Environment (MOE) is responsible for compliance under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA), the Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA), the Pesticides Act (PA) and the Nutrient Management Act, 2002 (NMA). As all of this legislation applies to agricultural operations, it is useful to know how MOE's compliance program works and what to expect if an MOE Agricultural Environmental Officer (AEO) (a provincial officer with specialized agricultural training) visits a farm.

This diagram provides a general illustration of how the compliance program works. The shading on the triangle represents how well operations are managing environment issues on-farm. The light area at the top of the triangle represents operations that are in compliance with the law and may benefit from additional best management practices.

The grey section in the middle of the triangle represents operations with relatively minor violations. The compliance program is designed to move the operations from the grey area into the lighter area (or into compliance) using a problem-solving approach. Using this approach, AEOs will work with farmers to achieve compliance with the legislation.

The dark area at the bottom of the triangle represents those very few operations that refuse to comply with the law. For these operations enforcement action is an option; however, the intent of the compliance program is still to help operations move into the lighter area through a problem-solving approach.

An AEO may visit your farm for a number of reasons, including the following:

• to perform an inspection to assess compliance with legislative requirements;
• to respond to a complaint received by the Ministry either from the public or from a referral from another agency; or
• to respond to a report of an environmental incident or spill.

In all cases, when AEOs visit farms, they will identify themselves and explain the purpose of their visit. When performing an inspection, generally a time will be prearranged that is mutually acceptable to both the farmer and the AEO; however, when responding to a compliance issue, spill or emergency, prearranging a time may not be possible.

Agricultural operations are required to comply with all of the requirements of the Environmental Protection Act, the Ontario Water Resources Act, the Pesticides Act, the Nutrient Management Act, 2002, and any associated regulations, protocols and approvals that apply to the operation. The Ministry's on-farm compliance program problem-solving approach engages farmers actively to resolve issues and have the operation come into compliance with the requirements of the law. As the requirements are often complex, AEOs work directly with farmers to achieve compliance with the law and, as identified above, to move into the lighter portion of the compliance triangle. A similar approach is taken to compliance under all MOE administered statutes. Other statutes administered by the MOE, such as the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Environmental Assessment Act, will directly affect farmers only infrequently.

AEOs are designated under the abovementioned pieces of environmental legislation and have certain powers under those Acts. The decision of where and when to use those powers is based on the concept of informed judgment, which provides a framework for selecting a compliance option based on the compliance history of the person involved, the environmental consequences of the violation, and the individual circumstances of the issue.

For more information for the selection and use of compliance tools for nutrient management, see the OMAFRA/MOE infosheet Compliance Tools for Nutrient Management.