Environmental Law for Engineers and Geoscientists

Book excerpt: Today’s engineering and geoscience student needs to know more than how to design a new or remedial project or facility. Questions of law and ambiguities of terms often occur in contracts for mining, landfills, site reclamation, waste depositories, clean up sites, land leases, operating agreements, joint ventures, and other projects. Work place situations arise where environmental compliance methods are challenged by enforcement agencies. Although the statutes, rules, and regulations may seem to be worded clearly and specifically, there are often questions in application and sometimes varied interpretations. Environmental Law for Engineers and Geoscientists introduces simplified American jurisprudence focusing on the legal system, its courts, terms, phrases, administrative law, and regulation by the agencies that administer environmental law. The book comprehensively covers the “big five” environmental statutes: NEPA, CAA, CWA, CERCLA, and RCRA. With the basic law chapter as a foundation, the book covers the practical applications of environmental law for geo-engineers. It concludes with a chapter on the growing area of expert witnessing and admissible evidence in environmental litigation — an area of law where success or failure increasingly depends on the exacting preparation and presentation of expert scientific evidence. Written by a professional mining and geological engineer and a practicing attorney, Environmental Law for Engineers and Geoscientists prepares students for the numerous environmental regulatory encounters they can expect when dealing with various statutes, laws, regulations, and agency rules that govern, affect, and apply to environmental engineering projects. It provides a working knowledge of how to judge whether or not a project is in compliance with regulations, and how to ensure that it is.