Time Schedule:
Ronald Thomas
TEST 333
Tacoma Campus
Covers practical environmental regulatory compliance. Develops an understanding of the systems, procedures, and forms required for routine environmental compliance. Explores how business, government, and the private citizen interact with environmental regulation.
Class description
The charter of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is protection of human health and the environment. A staggering volume of environmental regulation results from this simple legislative order. The task of negotiating this morass of paper and often conflicting policy falls to environmental professionals who specialize in one area or another of discovery, implementation or enforcement. In this course we will review some of the major environmental statutes (e.g., Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation, and Liability Act, Endangered Species Act, Emergency Planning & Community Right to Know Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act, Toxics Substances Control Act, etc.). We will work through interactive projects to understand how these rules work in daily application. We will complete compliance reports, conduct a site visit, evaluate environmental assessments, dissect an ISO 14001 environmental management system, hear experts from industry and government, simulate a public meeting, and discuss approaches to negotiation and conflict resolution.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Lecture, teamwork, class participation and presentations.
Recommended preparation
Success in other technical liberal arts courses.
Class assignments and grading
All are teamwork assignments requiring effective collaboration skills.
Instructor evaluation of work product and teamwork peer assessment.
