A Good Resource for Massachusetts Environmental Professionals - Massachusetts Environmental Law Handbook
Written: May 06 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Gives you all the environmental laws and regulations for Massachusetts in one spot
Cons: Don't miss an update
The Bottom Line: Anyone working in Massachusetts in the environmental field should have a copy of this book
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| jps246's Full Review: Gould Editorial Staff - Massachusetts Environmenta... |
Looking for some really dry reading? The Massachusetts Environmental Law Handbook from Gould Publications is about as dry as you can get.
Basically this book contains all of the current environmental laws that are on the books in Massachusetts. Not only that, but the book itself is held in a three-ring binder which allows you to continually update your book year after year. Gould provides (for a fee) a yearly packet of updated pages and you simply remove the pages they mark and replace them with the new pages. Voila, you have a continually up-to-date guide to all of the environmental laws in Massachusetts.
Who needs this?
The average citizen really doesn’t need this book unless they have a continuing interest in the various environmental statutes and regulations that exist in the Commonwealth.
This book is really geared towards environmental professionals who need to stay up-to-date with all of the Commonwealth’s laws and regulations. Now you might wonder why not just look it all up on the Internet, but you never know if you have the latest versions and some agencies have yet to put up their regulations. Thus with the Massachusetts Environmental Law Handbook everything is in one place and you know what you have is the most up-to-date information available. In addition, each year you can update your book so you are always up-to-date with the current regulations.
I use this book in conjunction with Internet resources fairly frequently at my job (I tend to like to print out certain regulations that I use often so I can put my own notes and stuff on them for future reference). I use it to check out how various agencies will review projects and what is required for permitting. I also use the book to understand various processes that the agencies may have. My book has plenty of Post-It notes throughout along with handwritten notes to remind me about special procedures or point out somewhat murky regulations (and what regulations aren’t!).
The Yearly Updates
For a fee, Gould Publications will send out annual updates to the Massachusetts Law Handbook. These updates come in a package along with instructions with what pages to remove and where to place the new pages. It’s a fairly simple process, though it can take some time, especially after a busy legislative session when there have been a lot of changes.
What this book isn’t
There is no commentary or editorial content to this book. It’s simply a compilation of all the Massachusetts environmental statutes and regulations. So don’t get this book expecting a guide to the statutes and regulations, you will be disappointed.
My Thoughts
I like the fact that with the Massachusetts Environmental Law Handbook I have a single place that has all of the rules and regulations that I deal with. It makes it easy to find statutes and regulations (thanks to the handy index) and provides with a stepping off point for further explorations with individuals at agencies who can more fully explain and discuss the various regulations.
In both jobs I’ve had in Massachusetts, the first working for the state and the current one in the private sector, I’ve had this book and I’ve made sure to keep it updated.
I also really appreciate the annual updates. It makes it a lot easier to stay up-to-date with changes and can even remind me to update my other resources when I discover a change that I hadn’t known about before. The process for replacing the sheets can be a bit time consuming, but whenever they arrive I set aside an hour or two and make my way through the book inserting the updates.
The only real problem I’ve discovered is that if you miss an update there’s no real way to catch up – you have to get them yearly or you’ll need to get a new book after you’ve missed a year since your regulations will be out of date.
In closing
Anyone working in Massachusetts in the environmental field should have a copy of this book. While many of the statutes and regulations are available online and through the State Bookstore, there’s no single place like the Massachusetts Environmental Law Handbook to get all your statutes and regulations when they relate to environmental law.
Recommended:
Yes
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