Regulatory Research Primer

The following are some considerations for conducting regulatory research:

Overall Approach

• Electronic word searching of statutes and regulations can be useful, however, generally it is difficult to choose words which are unique (i.e. you get too many results after conducting a query). Alternatively, a better approach is to use agency contacts to identify the governing regulatory areas (i.e. citations) - with the citations provided by agency contacts you can more efficiently and effectively acquire the proper sections of the statutes or regulations for review.
• Agency contacts are not only good at identifying regulatory citations - they also provide insight into what is really required, direction on where to look for more information and regulatory updates (but this is not to imply they should be relied on solely).
• In general start with the applicable environmental statute for the area of concern. Review the statute and promulgated regulations for the statute. Other resources to consider include: court opinions, preambles to the regulations (e.g. see the Federal Register), agency policy statements and decisions (e.g. records of decision), agency guidance and agency contacts (as discussed above).
• The preambles are especially important for new regulations - since there may be little or no history of compliance and few guidance documents available.
• Review the Federal Register (published daily) or equivalent state register, or a summary service of such, to keep "really up-to-date".
• If you must write an agency such as the EPA for a regulatory or policy interpretation, to expedite a response try routing the letter through one of your Congressmen.

Use of EnviroSource.com

EnviroSource.com is designed to put you in contact with agency personnel and their information resources - so you will get right to the proper citation and you won't have to rely on just the plain text of a statute or regulation. Utilize the categories in EnviroSource.com as follows:

• Most importantly the categories Federal/National - Laws and Regulations and State/Regional - Laws and Regulations, and other sections of this Subject Guide.
• The category Hotlines/Clearinghouses for quick direction on regulatory requirements.
• The categories Federal/National - Policies and Guidance and State/Regional - Policies and Guidance to identify the location of guidance (which elaborate on the intent of laws and regulations).
• The category Books/CD-ROMs to find additional summaries and interpretations of regulatory requirements (in addition to what is provided by other categories referenced above). An especially useful publication is titled "CFR Index and Finding Aids" (purchase through our category Books/CD-ROMs at a discount from GPO's price).
• Sources for regulatory updates can also be found on the EnviroSource.com Home Page under the link titled "regulatory updates and news".
• Some Web sites that offer laws and regulations allow you to view them as HTML or ASCII files (direct with your browser), while other sites require Adobe Acrobat Reader or downloading and unzipping of files - see the Subject Guide titled Databases/Online Systems Guide for more information.