The Environmental Section: An Overview
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LawSight is pleased to announce the availability of its section dedicated to providing and guiding information concerning web resources for the environmental legal and regulatory professional. Because the practice of environmental law frequently enters scientific and technical disciplines, the Internet provides a critical function for this legal specialty. Historically, the scientific and technical communities shaped the Internet's capacity to connect, communicate and share resources. Early efforts by academic, government and corporate entities within North Carolina's Research Triangle Park to utilize this technology have created a wealth of locally generated on-line information.
The purpose of this web page will be to provide a list of Internet sites for the busy environmental practitioner, helping them to separate and highlight useful information. The sites have been reviewed for their content and include annotations that describe briefly their use and benefits.
As with our other sections, LawSight will increase the and amend content over time. If you have comments, suggestions, updates or new submissions that will add value to this site please let us know by e-mail.
State of North Carolina
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Environmental Permit Information Center (EPIC)
http://www.p2pays.org/epic
This site provides attorneys with an excellent introductory set of references to environmental permitting. It provides a comprehensive list of links to permit resources spanning across all DENR divisions. The site also provides links to an updated DENR training events calendar and contacts. EPIC serves as a single point of contact on permitting issues and its staff can assist with identifying required permits and can provide specific permitting contacts for more detailed technical assistance.
DNER People Locator
http://www.ehnr.state.nc.us/EHNR/phone/telephon.htm
If you know the name of an agency staff member, this tool can be indispensable. Simply type in the name of the person you need, and an online database provides phone numbers, office address and E-mail.
Environmental Regulation: State Capitals Newsletter
http://statecapitals.com/environmental_regulation.html
This commercial online newsletter publishes environmental regulatory topics germane to specific states. A search tool allows you to see whether the publication treats a relevant environmental topic. For example I entered the term "hog" and discovered five articles relating to North Carolina hog farm industry issues. You can download the back-issue for only $3.95 per copy. WARNING: the credit card submittal form is not secure/encrypted, meaning that your billing information may be viewed by others on the Internet. We recommend you call the 1-800 number provided and place your order over the phone.
North Carolina Environmental Bulletin – Department of Administration State Clearinghouse
http://www.doa.state.nc.us/doa/clearing/ebnet.htm
This web site lists state and local environmental documents that range from environmental assessments for particular economic development initiatives to N.C. Department of Transportation projects, to notifications to apply for DENR funds. Each action includes a contact person and phone number. This site may interest plaintiff and defense attorneys and public citizens who have an interest in a particular or similar development project.
Federal Resources
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EPA Related Laws and Regulations
http://www.epa.gov/epahome/rules/html
This is a very good resource for attorneys that need quick access to federal environmental laws and regulations. It includes links to Federal Register documents online, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) , USC format laws and legislative history, plus other important federal documents assembled by EPA. Warning! Many of the available files are in PDF format. This is an excellent but proprietary file format that Adobe corporation produces. It allows Internet users to obtain large documents with a sophisticated array of publishing styles and formats in relatively small file sizes. You will need to install a PDF viewer on your computer. It is free from Adobe (www.adobe.com) It is well worth your while to acquire this reader software, because everyone is using this format these days (with good reason!)
EPA Publication Titles Sorted by Pub Number
http://www.epa.gov/clariton/clhtml/pubtitle.html
If you need to find a specific EPA publication, or hope to find an EPA document on a particular subject this is a very useful site. Otherwise you may spend too much time administering your search. Essentially EPA has scanned-in most to all of its documents into a hyperlink system that you can browse page by page. A search function helps to limit the query. Since these are graphic pages they take additional time to load on your computer. The age of your computer system and the connection speed to the internet will determine whether how quickly you can obtain documents.
Clean Air Act page
http://www.epa.gov:80/oar/oaq_caa.html
The Clean Air Act and most notably its 1990 amendments constitute the statutory basis for most federal air quality regulation. This site provides several methods to read and understand specific requirements under the Act. For the novice reader, the linked Plain English Guide to the Clean Air Act provides a great primer to the complexities associated with this comprehensive law.
Superfund /Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)
Regulation
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/oerr/whatissf/index.htm
This web site contains a good introductory description of Superfund, and provides links to statutory text, site priority listings and other related issue sites. This is a great cite to become familiar with this complex statute.
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Statute
http://www.fs.fed.us/forum/nepa/nepalaw.htm
This Act sets out federal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) procedures and the authority of the Executive Branch Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ).
EPA People Locator
http://www.epa.gov/CSO.html
If you know the name of an agency staff member, this tool can be indispensable. Simply type in the name of the person you need, and an online database provides phone numbers, office address and E-mail.
Academic Resources
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Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/delpf/
Duke University publishes a quarterly online journal that treats environmental law and policy issues in a format similar to traditional law review journals. Article outlines have hypertext table of contents and endnotes. Unfortunately the publication is apparently new and offers only one published back-issue. The current collection treats issues of comparative and public risk.
Emory Law Environmental Links
http://www.law.emory.edu/FOCAL/env.html
Emory Law School hosts a page of environmental law links that you may find useful.
Introduction