TABLE OF CONTENTS

Course Introduction
    · Schedule of Instruction
    · A Word About the Instructors
    · Course Learning Objectives
    · Acronyms
    · Related Environmental Training Courses

Introduction to the Legal System

    A. The American Legal System
    B. Administrative Law

Environmental Planning Laws

    A. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
    B. Fish & Wildlife Coordination Act
    C. National Historic Preservation Act
    D. Coastal Zone Management Act
    E. Essential Fish Habitat
    F. Endangered Species Act

State Water Law

The Corps Regulatory Program
    A. The Corps Regulatory Program: Section 404 and Section 10 Permits
    B. The Ocean Dumping Act
    C. Takings Law

Solid and Hazardous Waste Laws

    A. The Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA)
    B. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)

Other Pollution Control Programs

    A. Clean Water Act (CWA)
    B. Clean Air Act (CAA)

Regulatory Enforcement

Course Conclusion

Posttest
ISEERB Course Critique Forms and Mailing Labels
Student Certificates

Appendices

Appendices referred to in the text are located at the following page.

Revised by: Environmental Partners
Date: March 2001

For additional information, write to: info@environmentalpartners.net

INSTRUCTOR BIOS KETCHES

Peter Appel:
        Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia School of Law. After finishing his undergraduate and legal education at Yale University, Mr. Appel clerked for Chief Judge Gilbert S. Merritt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. After his clerkship, Peter worked as an attorney for the United States Department of Justice, where he handled environmental cases in the courts of appeals. Peter's cases included everything from cases against polluters to defending the Army's incineration of its arsenal of chemical weapons. During his time at DOJ, Peter argued approximately 50 cases in the federal courts of appeals and one state supreme court. He also was an instructor in the Attorney General's Advocacy Institute. Peter joined the UGA law faculty in 1997 where he teaches environmental law, natural resources law, and property.

Carol Blasi:
        Counsel to Conservation Law Foundation, a non-profit environmental advocacy organization. Previous served as Deputy Attorney General, Environmental Protection Section, representing the State of New Jersey in environmental enforcement matters. Areas of specialty include 404 permitting, wetlands protection, air pollution control, toxic discharges and pesticides control. Instructor in the multi-year Fundamentals of Environmental Compliance Inspections course, funded in part by the USEPA.

Kimberly Connolly:
        Assistant Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina School of Law, where she teaches natural resource environmental law. She is director of the law clinic and has taught in the Army Corps PROSPECT program for several years. Ms. Connolly was previously in private practice at two prestigious Washington, D.C. law firms.

Harrison C. Dunning:
        Professor of Law at the University of California - Davis, where he teaches courses in various environmental law subjects. In 1977 and 1978 he served as Staff director of the Governor's Commission to Review California Water Rights Law, and in 1981 and 1982, he served as a member of the California Water Commission. He is author of several chapters in the treatise Water and Water Rights and many law review articles on water resources and other topics. In 1996 he received the William & Sally Rutter Distinguished Teaching Award. He serves on the boards of the Bay Institute of San Francisco, the Water Education Foundation and the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation.

Victor B. Flatt:
        Associate Professor at Georgia State University College of Law and Visiting Associate Professor of Law at University of Washington's School of Law and Graduate School of Public Affairs. Professor Flatt heads the environmental law program at the College. His teaching and research are focused in the areas of environmental and administrative law, with specific interest in non-economic environment values. He is author of "The Human Environment of the Mind", cited as one of the best environmental law articles in 1994. He is speaker at numerous forums, including the Western Economics Conference, American Association of Law Schools Conference, University of Washington Sea Grant Program and the USEPA Region X Management Retreat. He is a consultant to government and environmental organizations. Mr. Flatt received his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University and his J.D., cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law. He clerked with the Hon. Danny J. Boggs, of the U. S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Samuel Kalen:
        Sam Kalen is an Of Counsel with the law firm of Van Ness Feldman. He is also an adjunct law professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, where he has been teaching environmental law for several years. He currently serves as a Vice Chair of the Book Publications Committee for the Section on Environment, Energy and Resources of the American Bar Association. Mr. Kalen speaks regularly at conferences on environmental law and natural resources, and he has written on a variety of environmental and resource topics.

John Copeland Nagle:
        Associate Professor at Notre Dame University College of Law in Indiana. He teaches legislation, torts, and a variety of environmental law courses, including international environmental law and hazardous wastes. His articles on statutory interpretation and on environmental law have been published in journals such as the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Wisconsin Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, New York University Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, and the William & Mary Law Review. He has lectured on similar issues at numerous forums in the United States and in China. Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Nagle served in the United States Department of Justice, first as an attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel where he advised other executive branch agencies on a variety of constitutional and statutory issues, and later as a trial attorney conducting environmental litigation.

Marc Poirier:
        Professor at Seton Hall University College of Law in New Jersey, teaching environmental law, administrative law, takings doctrine, coastal zone law, and international environmental law. Previous a partner in the D. C. law firm of Spiegel & McDiarmid. A graduate of Yale Law School, Harvard Law School cum laude and Yale University, magna cum laude, his areas of specialty include administrative law and litigation, regulatory matters, water issues, coastal development and beach use, environmental justice and hydroelectric licensing. He has taught environmental law at the Lewis & Clark Northwestern School of Law, Washington & Lee University School of Law and Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He was Director of the Environmental Concentration at Seton Hall, and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of The Coastal Society, a member of the Hydroelectric Committee of the Energy Bar Association, a co-founder and member of the Environmental Justice Law Professors Consortium, and a member of the South Orange, NJ Planning Board.

Mary Wood:
        Associate Professor of Law at the University of Oregon School of Law, where she teaches public lands law, federal Indian law, wildlife law and other environmental courses. She completed a trilogy of articles concerning the trust doctrine in federal Indian law and its application to environmental issues faced by native nations. Her current research focuses on the impact of the Endangered Species Act on tribal wildlife resources, specifically on treaty fishing rights in the Columbia River Basin. Ms. Wood is a graduate of Stanford Law School and served a judicial clerk on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She practiced in the environmental/natural resources department of a Pacific Northwest law firm, and served as special counsel to the US Fish and Wildlife Service during the exemption proceedings involving the Northern Spotted Owl. She has received the Ersted Award for distinguished teaching, and is a long-time instructor in the Corps'

PROSPECT program.

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Learning Objective 1
        The American Legal System (I, A): At the conclusion of this session, the students will be able to identify the sources of law in the United States legal system, the roles of the various branches of government, the role of agencies in government, the agencies with environmental responsibilities, and the different courts and their duties.

Learning Objective 2
        Administrative Law (I, B): At the conclusion of this session, the students will be able to identify the constitutional constraints that affect agencies, the political constraints on agencies, and the legal controls on agencies, particularly the Administrative Procedure Act's procedural requirements for rulemaking and adjudication and circumstances and standards for judicial review.

Learning Objective 3
        National Environmental Policy Act (II, A): At the conclusion of this session, students will be able to identify when NEPA requires an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS); what must be included in an EIS; and the role of an EIS.

Learning Objective 4
        Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (II, B): At the conclusion of this session the students will be able to identify federal consultation responsibilities under the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act.

Learning Objective 5
        National Historic Preservation Act (II, C): At the conclusion of this session the students will be able to identify federal agency responsibilities in complying with the consultation requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act.

Learning Objective 6
        Coastal Zone Management Act (II, D): At the conclusion of this session the students will be able to identify federal agency responsibilities for complying with the consistency review provisions of the Coastal Zone Management Act.

Learning Objective 7
        Essential Fish Habitat (II, E) and Endangered Species Act (II, F): At the consultation and Essential Fish Habitat (II, E) and Endangered Species Act (II, F): At the conclusion of this session, students will be able to identify what actions government agencies must take to comply with Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, identify when a proposed federal action will require an EFH identify what actions violate the Acts.

Learning Objective 8
        State Water Law (III): At the conclusion of this session the students will be able to identify how water is allocated under the riparian and appropriation systems, and to explain how state law affects federal water regulation and development.

Learning Objective 9
        The Corps Regulatory Program (IV, A): At the conclusion of this session, students will be able to identify when Sections 404 and 10 of the wetlands laws apply, and what principles are implicated in the issuance and enforcement of permits.

Learning Objective 10
        Ocean Dumping Act (IV, B): At the conclusion of this session, students will be able to identify the basic requirements of the Ocean Dumping Act and the interplay between the Corps and EPA in permitting and enforcement actions.

Learning Objective 11
        Takings Law (IV, C): At the conclusion of this session, students will be able to identify what kind of government action is likely to trigger a "takings" under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

Learning Objective 12
        Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (V, A): At the conclusion of this session, students will be able to identify how to determine whether RCRA is applicable to a given situation and, if so, the general nature of the requirements that might apply.

Learning Objective 13
        Comprehensive Environment Response and Liability Act (V, B): At the conclusion of this session, students will be able to identify the circumstances under which CERCLA might be applicable and, if so, the basic obligations and liability principles that would apply.

Learning Objective 14
        The Clean Water Act (VI, A): At the conclusion of this session, students will be able to identify when an NPDES permit is required and the basic requirements the NPDES program imposes.

Learning Objective 15
        Clean Air Act (VI, B): At the conclusion of this session, students will be able to identify the major programs under the Clean Air Act and the basic requirements they impose.

Learning Objective 16
        Regulatory Enforcement (VII): At the conclusion of this session, students will be able to identify several of the features that are common to the federal pollution control statutes that regulate the Corps. In particular, students will be able to identify the sanctions that are applicable under the pollution control statutes and the principles according to which they are imposed.

(USACE Training )