I A Thumbnail Sketch of Environmental Law

LibraryIllinois Environmental Law for Non-Environmental Lawyers (2017 Ed.)
I. A Thumbnail Sketch of Environmental Law
Bertram C. Frey
Deputy, Regional Counsel
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The views expressed by these authors have not been formally reviewed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and therefore do not necessarily reflect the position of that agency.

A. Introduction

Environmental law regulates both the pollution and misuse of natural areas and resources. It also allows certain authorized emissions of pollutants and uses of natural areas and resources. In addition, environmental law addresses the effect of pollution and misuse not only upon human health and welfare, but also upon the integrity and quality of ecosystems. Environmental law promotes conservation, preservation, and protection of the environment. Just as the term "environment" encompasses a broad view of the interrelationships that exist among and between air, land and water and all living things, environmental laws and regulations cover an increasing range of human and corporate activity. Specific environmental laws include measures to limit emissions of pollutants into the environment; measures to prevent the creation of pollutants; measures to remedy harm or the risk of harm to human health and welfare, wild animals and plants, or ecosystems; measures to protect and restore natural resources; and measures that assign legal liability.

Environmental laws address the complexity of natural systems. Environmental laws and regulations govern many parties and interests in flux, where issues are interlinked and sometimes explore the limits of knowledge in a variety of scientific disciplines. Environmental laws and regulations also increasingly incorporate technological considerations and dictate what technologies or the range of alternatives that can or must be used in implementing and enforcing environmental standards. As scientific understanding of health and environmental risks progresses, government agencies commensurately refine their environmental standards and encourage the development of new technologies to meet the refined standards. Constantly evolving, environmental laws and regulations thus await their inevitable revision.

This Thumbnail provides the lawyer who is not an expert on environmental law with some background on the field. The Thumbnail provides a broader context of international and national environmental law as well as Illinois environmental law. An environmental lawyer in Illinois must be intimately familiar with both federal and state environmental laws. Other Thumbnails in this series on environmental law address specific areas of environmental practice such as the regulation of air, water, and land pollution, hazardous wastes, toxic substances, underground storage tanks and drinking water. On specific questions, we recommend that the non-environmental lawyer seek the advice of competent environmental counsel.

B. International Environmental Law

Environmental law has developed in response to a number of global environmental trends, especially the following: human population growth; unsustainable use of nonrenewable resources; climate change from increasing greenhouse gas emissions; stratospheric ozone depletion; reduction in and degradation of natural areas (with a corresponding loss of biodiversity); increasing use and misuse of chemicals; escalating use of energy; unplanned urbanization; increasing waste generation (including expanding, vast areas of solid wastes floating in the oceans) increasing water pollution (including increasing acidification of rain, fresh water bodies and oceans); and disruption of biogeochemical cycles. Among the most serious chemical pollutants are persistent and bio-accumulative toxic substances including: 1) halogenated hydrocarbon pesticides, such as DDT, aldrin, and dieldrin, and 2) toxicants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which, even at very low concentrations as land or aquatic pollutants, can increase the risk of cancer, birth defects, and genetic mutations in fish, birds and people through bio-magnification a million times up the food chain, as they build in body tissues and organs. There is also emerging international concern over manufactured by-product contaminants called endocrine disruptors (e.g., TCDD, a form of dioxin) that mimic hormones in animals (especially fish) and can alter sexual characteristics and functioning.

Around the world, environmental laws and regulations now cover the following subject areas: air, atmosphere, conservation (of nature, natural areas and natural resources), environmental impact assessments, fishing, forests (conservation and management), hazardous substances and radiation, hunting (harvestable species), land use and land use planning, noise, non-renewable resources use and mining, protected areas, the sea, soil, toxicants, wastes (for example, garbage and rubbish), water, and wild animals and plants (including species protection and management...

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