In addition to the information provided below you may also:

Review the Front Cover of the Book (Acrobat)
Review the Back Cover of the Book (Acrobat)
Read the Detail Table of Contents, Preface, and About The Authors (Acrobat)

TOPICS COVERED

Broad environmental and land use planning programs

• California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
• Regulations for local land use planning (general plans, zoning, subdivisions, historic preservation, takings, and exactions)
• State and regional land use controls—management of coastal zones and natural hazards

State and federal pollution control programs for air quality, climate change, hazardous materials and toxic substances, hazardous wastes, solid waste, water quality drinking water, and noise

State and federal natural resources regulatory programs— water resources, fish and wildlife, wetlands, forestry, surface mining, and agriculture

The book also includes two practical guides for integrated environmental compliance:

• A comprehensive permitting guide to help project applicants navigate the complexities of environmental, land use, and natural resource permitting in California
• An auditing guide to help industrial facility managers plan and perform environmental compliance audits

Albert I. Herson, J.D., FAICP, is a planner and attorney who has practiced, taught, and written about California environmental law for 30 years. He has been an environmental consultant since 1979. He currently is Principal and Environmental Planning Practice Leader with SWCA Environmental Consultants, a 500-person environmental science and planning firm, where he helps private and public clients with environmental compliance and training.

Mr. Herson has devoted much of his career to making CEQA, NEPA, and natural resource laws understandable and accessible to California planners and attorneys. He is a frequent speaker and writer on California environmental law topics and on several occasions advised state agencies on revisions to the CEQA Guidelines to make them more practical and user-friendly.

Mr. Herson is co-author of The NEPA Book (2000) and the CEQA Deskbook (second edition, 1999) published by Solano Press. He is co-author of the CEQA and wetlands regulation chapters in California Environmental Law and Land Use Practice (Matthew Bender), and a contributing editor and regular writer for California Environmental Law Reporter.

Mr. Herson is a member of the State Bar, Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), as well as 2007–2008 President of the California Planning Roundtable. He is Past-President of the California Chapter, American Planning Association, which awarded him the Distinguished Leadership Award for a Professional Planner in 1996. He also has served on the California State Bar Environmental Law Section Executive Committee. Mr. Herson received a J.D. from the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, where he was class valedictorian, and an M.A. in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he graduated summa cum laude.

Gary A. Lucks J.D., CPEA, is a principal attorney and scientist with Beyond Compliance LLC where he advises clients on environmental compliance matters, sustainability, and environmental management systems (EMS). He is a Certified Professional Environmental Auditor (CPEA) with more than 20 years of environmental regulatory compliance and sustainability experience. Mr. Lucks specializes in environmental compliance auditing, compliance management systems (CMS), compliance counseling, EMS, environmental training, and environmental permitting.

Mr. Lucks is also a co-founder of the Sustainable Earth Initiative, a nonprofit organization specializing in EMS and dedicated to helping public agencies improve their environmental performance.

Mr. Lucks has written extensively on environmental law, legislation, and policy. He authored the environmental auditing chapter for the California Environmental Law and Land Use Practice treatise (Matthew Bender), and contributed to the chapter on Hazardous Materials and Toxic Substances. He has also written more than a dozen lead articles in the California Environmental Law Reporter.

Mr. Lucks is a frequent speaker on environmental law, auditing, legislation, and sustainability and teaches numerous environmental courses at the University of California Extension (Berkeley, Davis, and Santa Cruz campuses) ranging from hazardous waste management and air quality to environmental auditing. He currently serves on the California State Bar Environmental Legislation Committee and is the West Coast Chair of The Auditing Roundtable.

Mr. Lucks earned his B.S. in Environmental Biology from Tulane University and his law degree from the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law. He is licensed to practice law in California.

Book Overview

The field of California environmental law is vast and ever-changing. Planners, project applicants, developers, landowners, regulatory agency staff, consultants, attorneys, environmental managers, interested citizens, and students need a survey of California environmental law written for a general, non-technical audience. This book was written to serve that need.

Guide to California Environmental Law is the only book that covers the entire field of California environmental, land use, and natural resources law in a concise, user-friendly format. Written in non-technical language, the book comprehensively surveys the most important California environmental statutes and regulatory programs, as well as relevant federal environmental statutes and regulatory programs. It highlights landmark court cases and current policy issues, and provides practical tips on getting through the regulatory process successfully.

Guide to California Environmental Law is completely up-to-date, incorporating changes to statutes and regulatory programs through 2007. To assist in more in-depth research, the book identifies sources of further information for each major program, as well as regulatory agency contacts and websites.

The legal citations in the book are selective, to promote readability. Because this book is intended for a generalist non-technical audience, procedural topics such as administrative appeals, litigation, enforcement, and remedies are addressed only briefly. Attorneys seeking more comprehensive legal citations and expanded coverage of specific topics should refer to other excellent publications identified in this book, including Solano Press titles, and the Matthew Bender treatise, California Environmental Law and Land Use Practice. This book is not intended to give legal advice, for which an attorney should be consulted.

Book Objectives, Scope, and Format

Objectives

The specific objectives of this book are to provide readers with:

• A comprehensive, user-friendly, concise review of California and related
  federal environmental law in non-technical language
• Focused information on what practicing planners, project applicants, attorneys,
  and other audiences need to know
• References to key publications and websites for further research

Scope

The book is divided into four major parts:

• Part One starts with an introduction (chapter 1), reviewing the basic framework of California environmental law. It then covers the broadest environmental programs, those related to environmental and land use planning. It includes chapters on the California Environmental Quality Act or CEQA (chapter 2), local land use planning (chapter 3), and state and regional land use controls (chapter 4).
• Part Two covers specific pollution control programs. It includes chapters on air quality (chapter 5), noise (chapter 6), hazardous materials and toxic substances (chapter 7), hazardous wastes (chapter 8), solid waste (chapter 9), water quality (chapter 10), and drinking water (chapter 11).
• Part Three covers programs regulating the state’s natural resources. It includes chapters on agriculture (chapter 12), water resources (chapter 13), fish and wildlife (chapter 14), wetlands (chapter 15), forestry (chapter 16), and surface mining (chapter 17).
• Part Four presents two practical guides for environmental compliance. Chapter 18 is a permitting guide designed to help project applicants navigate the complexities of environmental, land use, and natural resource permitting in California. Chapter 19 is an environmental auditing guide designed to help facility managers plan environmental compliance audits.

Format
The book’s chapters covering individual land use or environmental regulatory
programs (chapters 2 through 17) follow a common internal organization:

• Identification of key laws and agencies
• Summaries of major regulatory programs
• A glossary of terms used in the chapter (major permits and approvals are indicated by an asterisk)
• Acronyms used in the chapter
• References to key publications and websites