Wisconsin Environmental Law Handbook

The Fourth Edition of the Wisconsin Environmental Law Handbook is the combined product of attorneys in the Land and Resources Practice Group at Michael Best & Friedrich LLP. The attorneys in the Land and Resources Practice Group provide comprehensive environmental, real estate, public utilities and agribusiness legal services. Much has changed in environmental law in the 12 years since the Third Edition (1995) was published. Over time, so many environmental regulatory programs were added to Wisconsin Statutes chapter 144 that the chapter outgrew itself. It has been divided into separate program chapters and, along with former chapter 147, moved and renumbered to chapters 281 through 299. In addition to updating the procedural and substantive areas covered in the Third Edition (1995), the Fourth Edition includes new chapters on public utility infrastructure siting and environmental innovation. Website and internet resources have also been added. Each chapter begins with a list of the applicable statutes, administrative rules and key cases, followed by a discussion of how the laws work in practice. To aid the reader, the Handbook now contains a Table of Chapters, Table of Contents, Table of Cases, Table of Acronyms, and Index of Words and Phrases. As the primary environmental agency in Wisconsin, the DNR is discussed throughout the Handbook. Other agencies with some environmental responsibilities are noted as appropriate in various Chapters. This Handbook is designed to provide a basic overview of environmental law and regulation in Wisconsin for Wisconsin lawyers who do not regularly practice in the area, environmental lawyers in other states who want to understand how things work in Wisconsin, business owners, plant managers and compliance officers who deal with environmental regulatory requirements among their many other duties, and others who are looking for a resource to help them understand the environmental regulatory framework. It is not a comprehensive treatise and should not be used as a substi