Environmental lawyers can be a parochial bunch, becoming so focused on the latest decisions issued by their favorite state and local regulators that there simply isn’t time to see what’s happening outside New Jersey. That is, until a client calls with a problem in New York.
Before taking on an assignment in New York, it helps to understand the basic structure of the N.Y. Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Like its federal and N.J. counterparts, DEC is subdivided into substantive program units, each managed by an assistant commissioner. DEC also has nine relatively self-sufficient regional offices with a regional director and a regional attorney in each. Lawyers who get called upon to assist clients in N.Y. may be surprised by the extent of decentralization within DEC. Each of DEC’s nine regional offices has considerable autonomy. As a result, dealings with DEC are likely to start off with a call to a regional office. It is often best to exhaust your options with local staff familiar with site-specific considerations before raising issues to the central office, where the primary concern might be consistency.
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