Reduction in the Release of Volatile Organic Compounds (Storage and Loading of Volatile Petroleum Liquids) Regulations (SOR/2025-88)

Marginal note:Application — facilities

• 2 (1) Subject to subsection (2), these Regulations apply to any facility that meets any of the following conditions:

  • (a) the sum of the internal volume of all tanks at the facility that are used to store volatile petroleum liquids is greater than or equal to 500 m³;

  • (b) the total volume of volatile petroleum liquid loaded at the facility exceeds 4000 standard m³ in a calendar year;

  • (c) at least one tank at the facility has an internal volume greater than or equal to 5 m³ and is used to store a volatile petroleum liquid with a benzene concentration greater than 20% by weight; or

  • (d) at least one tank at the facility has an internal volume greater than or equal to or greater than 100 m³and is used to store a volatile petroleum liquid with a vapour pressure greater than 76 kPa.

• Marginal note:Exceptions

  (2) These Regulations do not apply to the following facilities:

  • (a) facilities where volatile petroleum liquids are stored or loaded exclusively for the purposes of retail fuel sales at the facilities;

  • (b) facilities that extract petroleum from an underground geological deposit or reservoir;

  • (c) facilities that perform primary processing of petroleum after its extraction from an underground geological deposit or reservoir to

    • (i) remove water, carbon dioxide, sulphur compounds or contaminants from the petroleum, or

    • (ii) separate the petroleum into gaseous and liquid streams;

  • (d) facilities that store or load petroleum before it undergoes primary processing at a facility referred to in paragraph (c);

  • (e) facilities that separate a petroleum feed into its individual components or fractions, if at least 90% by weight of the petroleum feed entering the facility exists as a vapour at a temperature of 20°C and an absolute pressure of 101.325 kPa;

  • (f) offshore facilities that are located more than three nautical miles from shore;

  • (g) facilities whose property boundary is located more than 100 km from any population centre, if

    • (i) the loading racks at the facility are never used to load volatile petroleum liquids with a benzene concentration greater than 2% by weight,

    • (ii) the sum of the internal volume of all tanks at the facility that are used to store volatile petroleum liquids is less than 10 000 m³,

    • (iii) the total volume of volatile petroleum liquid loaded at the facility does not exceed 30 000 standard m³ in a calendar year, and

    • (iv) the total volume of volatile petroleum liquids loaded at the facility does not exceed 2000 standard m³ in a day;

  • (h) facilities where each tank used to store volatile petroleum liquids and each loading rack used to load volatile petroleum liquids is located more than 300 m from any occupied building, if

    • (i) the tanks at the facility are never used to store, and the loading racks at the facility are never used to load, volatile petroleum liquids with a vapour pressure greater than 76 kPa or a benzene concentration greater than 2% by weight,

    • (ii) the sum of the internal volume of all tanks at the facility that are used to store volatile petroleum liquids is less than 2000 m³,

    • (iii) the total volume of volatile petroleum liquid loaded at the facility does not exceed 25 000 standard m³ in a calendar year, and

    • (iv) the total volume of volatile petroleum liquid loaded at the facility does not exceed 500 standard m³ in a day; and

  • (i) facilities where each tank used to store volatile petroleum liquids and each loading rack used to load volatile petroleum liquids is located more than 60 m from any occupied building, if

    • (i) the tanks at the facility are never used to store, and the loading racks at the facility are never used to load, volatile petroleum liquids with a vapour pressure greater than 76 kPa or a benzene concentration greater than 2% by weight,

    • (ii) the sum of the internal volume of all tanks at the facility that are used to store volatile petroleum liquids is less than 2000 m³,

    • (iii) the total volume of volatile petroleum liquid loaded at the facility does not exceed 20 000 standard m³ in a calendar year,

    • (iv) the total volume of volatile petroleum liquid loaded at the facility does not exceed 500 standard m³ in a day, and

    • (v) the volatile petroleum liquids are stored at the facility in either fixed roof tanks that are each less than 5 m in diameter and 150 m³ in volume or underground tanks of any size.