Inventory of Federal, Provincial and Territorial Environmental and Occupational Health Data
Sources and Surveillance Activities

Inventory of Data Sources

Environmental Monitoring System (EMS) (British Columbia)

Contact
Ute Muller
Application Support Analyst
Business and Information Services Division
Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management
P.O. Box 9364, Stn Prov Govt
Victoria, BC
V8W 9M3
Tel: (250) 356-1924
E-mail: emshelp@gems5.gov.bc.ca

Organizational Unit Maintaining
Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection/Water, Air and Climate Change

Year Database Established
1996

Coverage Period
1965 to 2003

Purpose of Database
To capture data covering physical/chemical and biological analyses performed on water, air, solid waste discharges and ambient monitoring sites throughout the province.

Content
British Columbia data on outdoor air quality, drinking water quality (minimal), other water quality, soil contaminants, hazardous products (industrial), pesticides (industrial, farm). Data types: biomonitoring, biological, microbiological, chemical, and geographic. Geolocators: longitudinal / latitudinal coordinates.

Data elements: Monitoring site, name, and description; establishing agency of site; site type; site purpose; discharge to; latitude and longitude; geographic reference source; requisition number; sample start and end date; lab arrival date; sample state; sample descriptor; sample class; collection method; disinfectant type; preservative; sampling and analyzing agency; sampler; Ministry contact; parameter code; method code; taxonomic identification; life stage; media; result letter; result; confidence interval; result units.

There are approximately 5 million records in the database.

Data Updates
Daily

Data Provider
Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management collects the data from permit holders and Ministry staff; the original source of the data is municipal/industrial waste operators.

Data Availability
Ministry staff throughout British Columbia are the main users of the data, and access is password protected. There is no direct access by external parties.

Reports
No

Additional Comments
Data are collected under the authority of the
Waste Management Act, and the Federal/Provincial Water Quality Agreement.

Documentation on the database is available in electronic format.

The database links with information in the ministry's WASTE and WIDM databases.