An Environmental Legal Practitioner's Guide to EPA’s Website
Posted: 20 Mar 2012 Last revised: 16 Jul 2014
Date Written: January 15, 2012
Abstract
Amidst the birth of the United States (U.S.) environmental movement of the twentieth century, one of the most important and far reaching developments in terms of the federal government was the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an agency whose sole purpose was to ensure the protection, development, and enhancement of the natural environment. Since its birth in 1970, the EPA has grown from a relatively small, underfunded department to one of the largest independent agencies within the federal government, with regulatory responsibilities running the gamut from household cleaners to drinking water, to waste disposal and beyond. However, because of the breadth of the agency and its administrative responsibilities, locating useful information in a timely and effective manner can often be frustrating. In an effort to provide insight into this “green haze,” this article is designed to provide the environmental legal practitioner with an annotated guide to EPA.gov, the EPA’s public Internet portal. This article includes a discussion of various strategies for navigating the EPA website and identifies some key databases and general resources that will be of most assistance to the environmental legal practitioner.
Keywords: environmental law, environmental legal research, environmental protection agency, epa
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