Research Guides: EN 423: Environmental Engineering Senior Design: Government Regulations, Research & Data

Regulations & Legal Documents

EPA Regulations

The Environmental Protection Agency is the government body tasked with enforcing the laws passed about chemicals, substances, and other materials that affect the environment. The Substance Registry Services (SRS) database collects all of that information, including links to the relevant laws and statutes, in one place.

Substance Registry Services (EPA)
"Substance Registry Services (SRS) is the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) central system for information about substances that are tracked or regulated by EPA or other sources. It is the authoritative resource for basic information about chemicals, biological organisms, and other substances of interest to EPA and its state and tribal partners."

What regulations guide your work? When you need to find the legal information that applies to your project, you can either go right to the federal agency or use a Library database.

Nexis Uni includes legal opinions and state and federal regulations, and the Government Publishing Office provides open access to the current Code of Federal Regulations, which govern the U.S.

Database

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni, a multidisciplinary database from the legal and business research company LexisNexis, provides the full text of newspapers and magazines published worldwide, as well as news transcripts, international, federal, and state legal and regulatory information, biographical information, and corporate reports.

Government Docs

Not sure which agency regulates a particular topic? Start with USA.gov:

USA.gov
"Government information by topic and agency,” for federal, state, and local government data. The best place to start looking for a topic if you're not sure which agency/agencies would be involved, because it will bring back results from all of them! Everything else included in this list will generally also be findable via USA.gov.

Or start with the regulations and search for the topic.

GovInfo (US Government Publishing Office)
Govinfo provides "free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government", including the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations.
Regulations.gov
Regulations and related documents including "Federal Register publications, scientific and technical findings, comments and other regulatory documents." See what you can find!
Code of Federal Regulations (Government Publishing Office)
The official federal website for the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), open to all.

Cite these documents in APA:

How to Cite US Government Documents in APA (Cornell)
A research guide from Cornell University explaining how to cite various government documents in APA.

Federal & Local Info

Federal research, reports and info

USA.gov
"Government information by topic and agency,” for federal, state, and local government data. The best place to start looking for a topic if you're not sure which agency/agencies would be involved, because it will bring back results from all of them! Everything else included in this list will generally also be findable via USA.gov.
Data.gov
Data and datasets collected by federal agencies, collected in one place for discovery and use.

Census data about the U.S.

U.S. Census
Demographic and economic information and datasets collected by the U.S. Census, searchable by topic (education, housing, income level, population, etc.) or geographical area.
U.S. Census: QuickFacts
"Statistics for all states and counties, and for cities and towns with a population of 5,000 or more."

Federal Science

Find some key federal science research, including regulations, reports, data, and articles, through these government websites.

Portal to federally funded science research:

Science.gov
The results of federally funded science research: "200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information including research and development results.”

Federal water research

Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water
The EPA office devoted to protecting drinking water and water systems in the US through enacting water-related laws and regulations.
Drinking Water (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
The CDC's website about potable water, written for the public but includes useful research.

Biomedical literature database

Where to find articles about the physical effects of lead in drinking water.

PubMed This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, is an open access database of citations and abstracts for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, the premier database of the National Library of Medicine, and additional life science journals.