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December 1996, Column No. 22

Copyright 1996 Robert J. Ambrogi

The Internet Is Rich In Environmental Resources

By Robert J. Ambrogi

If you think you've had some bears for clients, consider lawyer Ben van Drimmelen, whose Web address tells it all: http://barristers4bears.com. Sure enough, visit his site and there's his photo, right on the front page, arms around a particularly grizzly professional acquaintance.

But don't feel bad for van Drimmelen, believing him to have been trapped in the claws of some unfortunate walk-ins. To the contrary, this former forester and biologist is putting his training to good use, concentrating his practice -- and his Web site -- on laws concerning natural resources such as fish, wildlife, forests and water.

Van Drimmelen's is just one of many sites on the World Wide Web devoted to environmental law. Here is a compilation of others.

Focus On The Law

For lawyers, many of the most useful sites are those specifically devoted to environmental law. Some of the best have been created by lawyers who practice in the field.

One such site is the Arent Fox Environmental Website, http://www.arentfox.com/enviro. It stands out for its unique focus: state environmental self-audit privilege and immunity laws. The site offers a state-by-state review of these laws, which protect companies from having to disclose self-audit results and offer immunity to those that do,

A broader approach is taken by the Chicago firm Ross & Hardies in its Environmental Law Web Site, http://www.webcom.com/~staber. The site provides an "at-a-glance" overview of environmental law. It also reviews recent cases, legislation, and actions taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Other useful law firm sites include:

• The McCutchen Environmental Group, http://www.mccutchen.com/env.
• Saul, Ewing's Environmental Law Page, http://www.saul.com/env/index.html. This site focuses on Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.
• The Indiana Environmental Practitioner's Website, http://www.iquest.net/~moddi.

For a site with a wide-range of resources, try the Environmental Law page of Law Journal EXTRA!, http://www.ljx.com/practice/environment/index.html. It offers current news and columns, law firm memoranda on environmental topics, links to other Internet resources, and more.

Legal Advocacy

Legal advocacy has long been a focus of groups devoted to protecting the environment, as they have taken their battles to the courtroom and the legislature. Several of these groups have established sites on the Internet.

One such group with a resource-rich Web site is the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, http://www.cec.org. A highlight of its site is a detailed outline of North American environmental law, covering Canada, Mexico and the U.S., and providing links to original source materials.

Another comprehensive site is EcoNet, http://www.igc.org/igc/econet/index.html. The site includes environmental news, action alerts and feature articles, as well as extensive links to related resources.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, http://www.nrdc.org/index.html, is four sites in one: Worldview, featuring current news and legislative bulletins; The Amicus Journal, with articles from the print magazine; Pro, providing legislative analyses and reports; and Sitings, links to other environmental resources on the Internet.

Other legal advocacy sites worth visiting include:

• Center for International Environmental Law, http://www.econet.apc.org/ciel, a non-profit, environmental law firm based in Washington, D.C.
• Earthlaw, Environmental Law in the Public Interest, http://www.earthlaw.org. A lively site, with an "Activist Page" and a guide to do-it-yourself environmental enforcement petitions under NAFTA.
• Environmental Defense Fund, http://www.edf.org. Learn about the nine most critical environmental issues of the '90s.
• Environmental Law Institute, http://www.eli.org. Seeking to advance environmental protection by improving law, policy, and management.
• Greenpeace International, http://www.greenpeace.org. Information on its various campaigns relating to toxics, nuclear waste, marine life and other issues.
• Natural Heritage Institute, http://www.igc.apc.org/nhi, a non-profit, natural resources law and consulting firm in San Francisco.
• Sierra Club, http://www.sierraclub.org. Selected articles from its publications and information on its various programs.
• Western Environmental Law Center, http://www.efn.org/~welc/index.htm. You've heard of the northern spotted owl, now meet its attorneys.
• World Wildlife Fund, http://www.wwf.org. Read its primer on the nine most endangered species.

News

Keeping current with the latest developments is crucial. Here are three sites that help.

• Quantum Law, http://www.quantumlaw.com, provides daily updates of environmental regulations, case law and legislation, organized under four categories: Air, Water, Waste, and Pesticides. You can have the full text of any regulation or appellate decision delivered to you by e-mail for between $5 and $15.
• Environmental News Link, http://www.caprep.com/caprep, is a free, daily news service. It also provides links to legislation, court decisions and agency actions.
• Environmental News Network, http://www.enn.com, offers a mix of free and pay news services. Its core is ENN Daily News, a headline news service that costs $29.95 a year. For free, you can access Planet ENN, a weekly environmental magazine, or ENN Radio, featuring news and talk via RealAudio software.

Government

From acid rain to waste water, the indispensable resource for the environmental lawyer is the Environmental Protection Agency, http://www.epa.gov. This well-designed site is home to the full text of laws and regulations, press releases, newsletters, and other EPA documents. Use the site's "browse" feature to bring up a list of every covered topic and its related resources.

Technically part of the EPA site, Enviro$en$e, http://es.inel.gov, is really a Web site unto itself. It seeks to provide a single repository for information and databases relating to pollution prevention, compliance assurance, and enforcement.

Other government sites for the environmental lawyer include:

• Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, http://atsdr1.atsdr.cdc.gov:8080. This agency's purpose is to prevent exposure to hazardous substances. Among the site's most useful features site are HazDat, a database of hazardous substances and their health effects, and "ToxFAQs," short summaries about hazardous substances.
• U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, http://www.usda.gov. The site includes news releases, reports on domestic and foreign agriculture, and the agency's 1996 Agriculture Fact Book.
• U.S. Dept. of Energy, http://www.doe.gov. Here you can find scientific and technical information relating to sources of energy and their impact on the environment.
• U.S. Dept. of the Interior, http://www.doi.gov. The site has a broad collection of links to information relating to preserving and protecting natural resources.
• The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, http://www.fws.gov. Follow the "nationwide activities" link for information on programs relating not just to fish and wildlife, but also endangered species, wetlands and coastal ecosystems.
• U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources of the U.S., http://h2o.usgs.gov.Data and publications about U.S. and state water resources.
• NASA, http://www.nasa.gov/NASA_homepage.html. NASA's Mission to Planet Earth is using information gathered from space to help predict how weather and climate will affect the environment here on Earth.

Laws And Treaties

For the full text of laws, treaties or other original sources of environmental law, the place to start is the Pace Virtual Environmental Law Library, http://joshua.law.pace.edu/env/vell6.html. It offers an exhaustive collection of links to U.S. and international materials, and supplements each link with a synopsis, a citation, and other information.

Other sites offering laws and treaties include:

• Multilateral Environmental Treaties, http://www.greenpeace.org/~intlaw. This site, maintained by the Greenpeace Legal Department, provides the text of treaties, in hypertext format.
• Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators, http://sedac.ciesin.org/pidb/pidb-home.html. This site allows you to query various databases to determine specific information about environmental treaties. For example, find out which treaties are in force for a particular state, or which treaties govern a particular subject.

U.S. environmental laws, including CERCLA and Clean Air and Clean Water acts, are available through the Legal Information Institute's hypertext U.S. Code, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode. Major laws found there include:

Law Reviews

Only one environmental law review publishes its full text on the Web, the Villanova Environmental Law Journal, http://www.law.vill.edu/vls/journals/elj.

Three others have Web sites containing abstracts or tables of contents:

• Ecology Law Quarterly, Univ. of Calif. Berkeley, http://www.law.berkeley.edu/~elq (abstracts only).
• Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/lc/journals/gielr/gielr.html (abstracts only).
• West-Northwest Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, University of California, Hastings College of Law, http://www.uchastings.edu/wnw/wnw.html (tables of contents only).

Non-legal Resources

These sites offer scientific or technical information related to the practice of environmental law:

• Environmental Information Resources, http://www.gwu.edu/~greenu/index2.html.

This site provides an extensive collection of links to environmental resources on the Internet, organized by subject, name or country.

• The Environmental Professional's Guide to the Net, http://www.geopac.com.

A guide to technical and scientific Internet sites related to the environment.

• Economics of Industrial Pollution, http://www.worldbank.org/html/prdei/ipps/home.html.

A World Bank site devoted to assessing the costs of pollution remediation.

• EcoWeb, http://ecosys.drdr.virginia.edu/EcoWeb.html.

This site, operated by the University of Virginia, is best visited for its link to the EcoGopher Environmental Information Server, home to the archives of more than 40 environment-related discussion lists.

Robert J. Ambrogi, a lawyer in Rockport, Mass., is editor of legal.online, a monthly newsletter about the Internet published by Legal Communications Ltd., Philadelphia. He can be reached by e-mail at rambrogi@legaline.com or by phone at (978) 546-7898.