Appeals court tells EPA to update lead paint rules, and make it snappy
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court this week ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to revise its nearly 17-year-old standard for dangerous levels of lead in paint and dust within one year, a rare legal move that amounts to a sharp rebuff of President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
The decision Wednesday also called attention to the persistent threat of lead paint to children in millions of U.S. homes, four decades after the federal government banned it from households.
“This is going to protect the brains of thousands of children across the country,” said Eve Gartner, a staff attorney for Earthjustice who helped argue the case on behalf of groups pushing for tougher standards.
The 2-to-1 decision, by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, means the EPA must propose a new rule within 90 days, instead of the six years the Trump administration had requested to reconsider what levels of lead exposure are acceptable for children.
That request was on top of a six-year delay under former President Barack Obama, a holdup the court said was unreasonable, particularly in the face of new research on the hazards of lead paint.
A spokesman for the EPA said the agency was reviewing the court’s decision and declined to say if the agency planned to appeal.
The EPA set standards in 2001 for lead contamination levels in dust and soil in homes. Environmental and health groups petitioned the agency in 2009 to tighten standards on lead in dust and soil as well as paint to “more adequately protect” children.
The EPA, then under Obama, acknowledged the need for stricter rules in 2011 and agreed to take action, but never did so and set no timelines for developing a new rule.