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Environmental Law Research Guide

Introduction

This research guide provides an overview of the federal environmental law resources and other related resources that you should consider as you plan your environmental law research. It does not cover international or state laws.

For a comprehensive guide to environmental law at the international level, read our research guide on International Environmental Law.

Because environmental law research is often interdisciplinary in nature, you might want to visit Lauinger Library and/or the Blommer Science Library on the Main Campus.

For further assistance in your environmental law research, stop by the Reference Desk in the Reading Room, call us at (202) 662-9140, or send e-mail to a reference librarian.

Starting Points

Because environmental law is a complicated area of the law that involves federal, state and local laws, it is often helpful to begin research in a treatise that provides an overview of the law.

The following sources will provide you with a good background and overview of issues in environmental law:

  • Environmental Law and Land Use Planning, in Specialized Legal Research (Penny Hazelton ed., 2005) [KF240 .S64]
    Provides an extensive overview of environmental law publications.
  • Frank Grad, Treatise on Environmental Law (last updated 2004) [KF3775 .G7, available on Lexis]
    Cited in many environmental law cases. Multi-volume treatise providing analysis of statutes, regulations and agency and court decisions.
  • William H. Rodgers, Jr., Environmental Law (last updated 2006) [KF3812 .R63 available on Westlaw]
    Multi-volume treatise providing comprehensive coverage of statutes, regulations and agency and court decisions.
  • Federal Procedure, Lawyers Edition (volumes 11 & 11A; chapters 32 & 56) [KF8835 .F43 , available on Westlaw]
    Guide to practice before federal environmental agencies.
  • Roger W. Findley & Daniel A. Farber, Environmental Law in a Nutshell (6th ed. 2004) [KF3775.Z9 F56]
    Quick introductory reference guide to many major topics in environmental law.

Looseleaf Services

Looseleaf services bring together statutes, regulations, cases, rulings and editorial commentary on specific areas of the law. These services are updated frequently and are a good source for up-to-date information. There are three major looseleaf services covering environmental law:

Environmental Law Reporter (Environmental Law Institute) [KF3775 .A6 E5]

  • Provides updates on recent decisions, legislative developments, and agency actions, at both the federal and state levels;
  • Tracks and summarizes all major environmental, toxic tort, natural resource and land use law developments, including legislative and administrative action, judicial decisions, and news;
  • Provides information on state developments in environmental, natural resources, land use, and toxic tort law;
  • Covers international topics related to the environment; and
  • Summarizes a total of 48 major federal statutes, and major treaties, conventions, and international agreements.
  • Available:
  • Lexis (Short Name: ENVIRN;ALLELR)
  • Westlaw (ELR)
  • www.eli.org

Environment Reporter (BNA) [KF3775 .A6 E49]

  • Weekly report of the latest legislative, administrative, judicial, regulatory, industrial, and technological developments affecting pollution control and environmental protection;
  • Covers activities of Congress, federal administrative agencies, federal and state courts, and developments from state legislatures and regulatory agencies;
  • Covers regulation of air pollution, water pollution, solid waste management, hazardous waste, oil pollution, natural resource utilization, and mining.
  • Available:
  • Lexis (Short Name: ENVIRN;ENVREP)
  • Westlaw (BNA-ER)

International Environment Reporter (BNA) [K3585.4 .I58]

  • Essential resource for knowing and understanding environment and safety news, laws, regulations, and policies in all major industrialized and developing nations and in international governmental and nongovernmental organizations.
  • Available:
  • Lexis (Short Name: ENVIRN;INTENV)
  • World Wide Web (available to the GULC community)

Federal Laws

The following chart summarizes a few of the more important federal environmental laws. For a more comprehensive list of federal environmental laws, visit the EPA's Web site.

Acronym Law Statutory Citation Regulatory Citation Purpose
CAA Clean Air Act 42 U.S.C. §§ 7401 et seq. 40 C.F.R. 49-97, 122-124, 144-145, 270-271 Regulates air emissions
CERCLA (superfund) Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (amended by SARA) 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601 et seq. 40 C.F.R. 300-312 Governs clean-up responsibilities for historic hazardous waste sites
CWA Clean Water Act 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251 et seq. 40 C.F.R. 104-136, 140, 144-145, 230-233, 401-471, 501-503 Regulates discharge of pollutants into the water
EPCRA (SARA Title III) Emergency Planning & Community Right to Know Act 42 U.S.C. §§ 11001 et seq. 40 C.F.R. 302, 355, 370, 372 Requires disclosure of the storage of hazardous substances, public notification, and procedures for response in the event of a release of hazardous substances.
ESA Endangered Species Act 16 U.S.C. §§ 1531 et seq. 50 C.F.R. 17.1 et seq. Regulates and conserves threatened and endangered species and their habitats.
FIFRA Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act of 1972 7 U.S.C. §§ 136 et seq. 29 C.F.R. 1440.1; 40 C.F.R. 32.100 et seq., 152-168, 180.1 Regulates pesticides.
NEPA National Environmental Policy Act of 1960 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321 et seq. 40 C.F.R. 6, 1500-1508; 7 C.F.R. 520; 10 C.F.R. 1021 Establishes a broad national framework for protecting the environment. Imposes environmental responsibilities on all federal agencies and requires agencies to write environmental impact statements.
RCRA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act 42 U.S.C. §§ 6901 et seq. 40 C.F.R. 144-148, 260-299 Regulates and controls hazardous waste and manages non-hazardous waste. Amended by HSWA in 1984 to require phasing out land disposal of hazardous waste.
SARA Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601 et seq. 40 C.F.R. 300-312, 355, 373 Amended CERCLA
TSCA Toxic Substances Control Act 15 U.S.C. §§ 2601 et seq. 40 C.F.R. 700-799 Regulates industrial chemicals produced or imported into the United States

Legislative Histories and Proposed Legislation

Compiled Legislative Histories

For many federal environmental laws, there are compiled legislative histories available in the Library. These compilations usually include bills, Congressional Record debates, reports and hearings. To find a compiled legislative history, try a keyword search in the library catalog, such as clean air act and legislative histor* or ask at the reference Desk for Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories.

For complete legislative history information, read our Legislative History Research Guide.

Proposed Legislation

Congressional Committees are great sources of information about current and proposed environmental legislation:

Federal Administrative Agencies

Many federal agencies have been delegated the power to administer and enforce environmental laws. In addition, agencies may have jurisdiction that overlaps with other agencies. Therefore, when performing environmental law research, be sure to review all potential regulations and be aware that multiple agencies may be involved.

For a comprehensive review of administrative law research, see our Administrative Law Research Guide.

The following chart lists selected federal administrative agencies involved with environmental law, the enabling legislation for the agency, the laws administered by the agency and where you can find selected agency decisions and other agency publications.

Agency Enabling Legislation Administered Law Decisions and other Documents

Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)

CEQ

NEPAnet

NEPA, 42 U.S.C. §§ 4341 et seq. NEPA CEQ Guidance

at CEQ:
[http://ceq.eh.doe.gov/
nepa/regs/guidance.html]

CEQ Annual Environmental Quality Reports (1970-1997)

at CEQ:
[http://ceq.eh.doe.gov/
nepa/reports/reports.htm]

Environmental Impact Statements (EIS)

at EPA:
[ http://cfpub.epa.gov/
compliance/nepa/current/]

Environmental Protection Agency

www.epa.gov

Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970, 5 U.S.C. App. 1

Clean Air Act

Clean Water Act

CERCLA

EPCRA

FIFRA

NEPA

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

Safe Water Drinking Act

Toxic Substances Control Act

Environmental Appeals Board Decisions

Final agency decision-maker on administrative appeals

Westlaw (FENV-EPA) (1992-)

Lexis (Short Name: ENVIRN;EPAAPP)

at EPA:
[http://www.epa.gov/eab]

Administrative Law Judge Opinions

Conduct hearings and render decisions

Westlaw (FENV-EPA)

Lexis (Short Name: ENVIRN;EPAAPA)

Environmental Law Reporter (ELI)

CERCLA records of decision

RCRA decisions

at EPA:
[http://www.epa.gov/
aljhomep/index.htm]

General Counsel Opinions

General Counsel Opinions (1979-) [KF3775 .A56 U54]

Westlaw (FENV-GCM) (1979-)

at EPA:
[http://www.epa.gov/
ogc/documents.htm]

Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of Interior

www.fws.gov

Fish and Wildlife Act, 16 U.S.C. § 742a Endangered Species Act

FWS and NOAA Decisions and Other Documents

Ocean Resources and Wildlife Reporter

Westlaw (FENV-ORW)

Federal Register Notices

at EPA
[http://www.epa.gov/
docs/fedrgstr
/EPA-SPECIES/ ]

Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice

www.usdoj.gov/enrd/

    Consent Decrees
at DOJ

[http://www.usdoj.gov/
enrd/open.html ]

Summary of Litigation Accomplishments
at DOJ

[http://www.usdoj.gov/
enrd/ctopics.htm]

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

www.noaa.gov

Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1970, 5 U.S.C. App. 1 Endangered Species Act FWS and NOAA Decisions and Other Documents

Ocean Resources and Wildlife Reporter

Westlaw (FENV-ORW)

Lexis (Short Name: NOAA)

More Secondary Sources

Treatises

In addition to the treatises listed above, the library owns a variety of general and specialized resources covering environmental law. To find these resources:

Specialized Law Journals

The library subscribes to dozens of legal journals devoted exclusively to issues of environmental law, including some from other countries that will be useful in researching issues of foreign or comparative law.

In order to do a comprehensive search, use the indexes described below.

Journal Indexes

To do a comprehensive search of the journal literature on your topic, you must use journal indexes. The full-text journal databases on Lexis and Westlaw do not contain all of the law journals published, and, for those that are included, the starting date of coverage is rarely volume 1.

The journal indexes, in contrast, include virtually all legal journals from volume 1 and, in the case of the Legal Resource Index, legal newspapers as well.

For research on environmental statutes passed prior to 1980, older journals can provide excellent background information and discussions of policy issues.

Non-Legal Research

Environmental law research often requires research into the literature of other disciplines, such as public policy, economics, social sciences and science.

Some of this law-related information is available in the Law Library and can be accessed through keyword or subject searches in the library catalog or through the non-legal indexes that we subscribe to. More information and materials are available on the Main Campus at Lauinger Library or the Blommer Science Library. The reference librarians at Lauinger have prepared an Environmental Research Guide to guide you in using their collection and research databases.

Databases

Database

Contents

 Access
CCH Health and Human Resources Under the Environmental Compliance tab, access to Federal & state environmental laws and regulations are provided, as well as CCH analysis of air quality, hazardous waste and water quality. Database List

Ecolex

http://www.ecolex.org/

 Global source for environmental law information. Includes information on treaties, international soft-law, judicial decisions, and national legislation. Free to all
Environment and Safety Library (BNA) Federal and state laws, regulations and other documents relating to environmental law. Note that the Library does not subscribe to all features of this database.

Database List

(GULL only)

Environment Reporter (BNA) Comprehensive coverage of legislative, regulatory, legal, and policy news concerning the environment

Database List

(GULL only)

Environmental Law Net

http://lawvianet.com/

 Web site developed by a practitioner for practitioners. Contains well-organized lists of links to federal, state and international environmental laws and regulations; agency decisions; litigation; and other relevant items (and sometimes more fun than strictly relevant – such as to the Toxic Waste Collection Game). Free to all
Environmental Law Reporter (ELI) Comprehensive database providing coverage of federal and state laws, regulations, administrative and judicial decisions and other documents relating to environmental law.

www.elr.info

(GULL only )

Lexis Environmental Law Library (ENVIRN)

Brings together all materials, such as cases, statutes, regulations, journal articles and treatises, relating to environmental law.

Legal > Area of Law – By Topic > Environment
LexisNexis Environmental Database of citations and abstracts of articles, papers and reports on the environment from 1975 forward. Not strictly a legal database. Items from 1997 forward are in the related microfiche set at Lauinger Library.

Lauinger Library - click on L, then select database

(Georgetown University only)

National Library for the Environment

http://www.ncseonline.org/nle/index.cfm

 1500+ reports on the environment by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress among other documents and information Free to all
Toxics Law Reporter (BNA) Comprehensive coverage of federal and state developments in toxic tort, hazardous waste, and related insurance litigation.

Database List

(GULL only)

Westlaw Topical Area of Practice – Environmental Law Brings together all materials, such as cases, statutes, regulations, journal articles and treatises, relating to environmental law.

All Databases > Topical Materials by Practice Area > Environmental Law

Current Awareness Sources

Database Contents Access
Environmental Law Reporter (ELI) Comprehensive database providing coverage of federal and state laws, regulations, administrative and judicial decisions and other documents relating to environmental law.

www.elr.info

GULL Only

Daily Environment Report (BNA) Daily environmental news resource tracking developments in courts, Congress, agencies, industry, and organizations.

Database List

(GULL only)

Toxics Law Daily (BNA) Tracks federal and state developments in toxic tort, hazardous waste, and related insurance litigation.

Database List

(GULL only)

Greenwire (E&E Publishing) A daily news service that reports on the latest environmental and energy politics and policy at state, national and international levels.

Database List

(GULL only)

Landletter (E&E Publishing) A weekly newsletter that provides in-depth coverage of the latest developments in natural resources regulation, litigation, and legislation.

Database List

(GULL only)

Environment and Energy Daily (E&E Daily) Tracks environmental and energy issues in Congress.

Database List

(GULL only)

Chemical Regulation Daily (BNA) Daily coverage of developments and issues in the field of chemical regulation

Database List

Search under BNA publications

(GULL only)

Recommended Web Sites

1. Government Agencies

2. International Organizations

3. Other Resources

Revised 11/05 (JLD)
Updated 07/07 (MMK)

Page last saved 12-Nov-2009