Sept. 7, 2016 – With the recent stories about water quality in Flint, Michigan, and Rio de Janerio, do you wonder how safe your drinking water is? Where you can find that information?

Perhaps you want to get rid of the 64-inch projection television your grandparents gave you – the one with the picture tube. If you put it on the curb, will the waste collectors take it?

You can find the answer to these questions and more from these great federal and Wisconsin environmental law resources.

Federal Agency Information

Start with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This site is nicely arranged and very easy to navigate with tabs across the top to help you locate what you are looking for.

From the drop-down menu under the Laws and Regulations tab, you will find news, updates to the laws and acts, answers to FAQs, and more:

• Laws and Executive Orders: A full summary of the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, and Food Quality Protection Act, etc. Links include the summary and a PDF of the full act.

• Regulations: Search for regulations, track EPA rulemakings and retrospective reviews, locate action initial lists, and find links to individual state environmental agencies.

• By Topic: Browse by broad area, including air, cross-cutting issues, emergency management, land and cleanup, pesticides, toxic substances, waste, and water.

• By Business Sector: Information and links to the main regulations for specific industries such as transportation, oil and gas, agriculture, etc.

• Compliance: A searchable database for facilities and their environmental compliance.

• Enforcement: Information about enforcement (policy, documents, initiatives). And at the bottom of the page, there is a great little area titled “Enforcement in Your Community.”

• Policy and guidance: Includes policy and guidance documents.

Some of the more interesting areas on the EPA website include:

• Drinking water: Resources on ground water and drinking water.

• ECOTOX knowledgebase: Chemical toxicity information for aquatic and terrestrial life.

• Enforcement and Compliance History (ECHO): Interactive map on concluded enforcement actions and cases. Find performance and trends for air, water, and hazardous waste pollution. The database was last updated Jan. 31, 2015, however.

• EPA in your state: Learn about EPA initiatives, events, and contact information.

• Regulatory Development and Retrospective Review Tracker (Reg DaRRT): Provides information on priority rulemakings, and information on the status of retrospective reviews of existing regulations.

• Water quality standards: State and tribal water quality standard regulations.

• Science and technology: Highlights research at the EPA. There is an abundance of information and links on topics such as air, water, pesticides, climate change, and sustainable practices.

• Sustainability: Resources for sustainable living and manufacturing.

• EPA research models, tools, and databases: Sorted by broad area.

• Toxics release inventory: Resource for learning about toxic chemical releases and pollution prevention activities reported by industrial and federal facilities.

• Brownfields:  Search properties that may have hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants.

• Actions Initiated by Month (AIL): Lists the rules and related actions initiated by month.

Wisconsin DNR

The major environmental agency in Wisconsin is the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Just like with the EPA website, a great starting point on the Wisconsin DNR website is the Licenses and Regulations tab.

Under here you will find information on regulations by topic such as environmental, air pollution, and water; licenses and registration of all-terrain vehicle and utility vehicles; and permits.

Some areas within the Wisconsin DNR website worth checking out include:

• Environmental protection topics

• Air pollution air permits: Learn about and/or apply for a permit. You can also search for individual air pollution control permits, and even view and download copies of the actual permit and documents.

• Wisconsin E-Cycle program:

• Recycling electronics
• E-Cycle Wisconsin program information
• Find a collection site: Search by county, then type of thing you need to recycle, such as a television.
• List of registered recyclers
• Wisconsin Recycling Markets Directory: Searchable database of material recyclers – search by category, county, etc.

• Drinking water

• Private wells
• Public water supply systems: DNR database that provides drinking water data for public water supply systems (i.e., municipal). Reports include lead, copper, samples statistics, plan reviews, violations, and more.

• Brownfields:
  
• Contaminated Lands Environmental Action Network (CLEAN): Information on cleanups in progress or completed, liability incentives, continuing obligations, and more.
  • Bureau for Remediation and Redevelopment Tracking System Online database
  • RR sites – web-based mapping system via desktop or mobile device

• Enforcement and compliance: 2016 DNR bond schedule

• Wisconsin Manure Management Advisory System: Interactive map and apps to help individuals (farmers, agriculture services, etc.) identify suitable cropland areas for “spreading” nutrients (aka, manure). You can even get a forecast. This might be very useful for matters dealing with manure runoff.

• Public input: On this page you can find calendars for public hearing and public meeting dates. Great features on this page are:

  • Proposed rules
  • Proposed emergency rules
  • Proposed DNR program guidance – includes a link to sign up for email notices on when new guidance is available for comment

Public Health Information

Three related government websites for environmental public health information are:

• U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention: 10 Essential Environmental Public Health Services

• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

  • Household products database: Browse by category, product name, or ingredients.
  • Product safety and Recall list: If you have the name of a product, you can enter it in the search box. You can also navigate to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Recalls and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Recalls notices.

• Wisconsin Department of Health Services

  • Environmental health: Information on a variety of natural and man-made environmental health hazards.
  • Environmental public health tracking: Topic and Public Data Provides data on more than a dozen topics.
  • County environmental health profiles
  • Surveillance briefs:  Timely reference research and resource guide complied by Wisconsin DHS on specific topics (i.e., Lyme disease)
  • Data and statistics       

Here are some odds and ends web resources that you may find useful:

• Environmental Law legal subject

  • Wisconsin Water Rights: The full text of Wisconsin Water Law: A Guide to Water Rights and Regulations is available from the UW-Extension.

• Wisconsin brownfield programs

• Law360 environmental law daily email: free daily email service. The daily email service is free – although to view entire story content does require a paid subscription.

• Commercial Online subscription resources: Check out the environmental law sections of your firm’s commercial legal online vendor (LexisNexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg Law) subscriptions.

Carol Schmitt is a member of Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin (LLAW) and the American Association of Law Libraries. LLAW's Public Relations Committee coordinates regular contributions by its members to InsideTrack.