New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Lead poisoning suit nearing a close
NEW HAVEN — The number of abatement orders placed on the land records since last spring is approaching 100 as the updated procedures developed by Health Director Maritza Bond address the problem of young children poisoned by lead exposure.
Her work has culminated in a settlement of a classaction suit brought by the New Haven Legal Assistance Association against the city that the parties will detail Monday.
A previously scheduled press conference on the lead issue was put off as the city continues to update the public on the ramifications of a fatal fire on Valley Street.
That early Wednesday morning blaze killed one firefighter and left a second firefighter in the burn unit of Bridgeport Hospital.
Legal Assistance and the city have been working toward a settlement of the suit filed by Legal Assistance in May 2019 on behalf of young children with elevated blood lead levels.
The suit addressed the decision by the administration of former Mayor Toni Harp to change the inspection timetable to find the source of the lead poisoning.
The whole approach to the issue changed dramatically when Mayor Justin Elicker took office in 2019 and the parties worked on the resolution of some sticking points, while Bond took up policy changes and the day-to-day work.
Elicker had been critical of the former mayor’s decisions on lead abatement during his 2019 election campaign against her.
Legal Assistance had multiple judges in some four cases involving individual children, in addition to the class-action, rule in its favor over lead protocols, finding the city had failed to follow its own ordinance on inspections required since at least 2012.
More recently, notices that the parties were close to a settlement came and went as the courts shut down during the coronavirus pandemic.
The latest court notice by Superior Court Judge Claudia A. Baio asked that an update be filed by June 9, as the parties keep assuring her they were making progress.
Judge John Cordani in August 2019 certified the class-action after finding commonality among all estimated 300 children under age six, who had a confirmed venous blood lead level equal to or greater than 5 micrograms per deciliter.
Children living in properties owned by the New Haven Housing Authority were carved out of the class, as the authority has similar inspection rules under federal jurisdiction. NHLAA took issue with this, the one point of contention.
The authority serves some 6,000 families in properties it owns, as well as those using Section 8 vouchers.
Cordani, in this ruling, said since lead poisoning usually is connected to older, run-down properties, the families affected are “likely to be poor and have an impaired ability to bring separate actions concerning the issues here,” which argues in favor of the class designation.
The class definition applies to every child who since Nov. 1, 2018, showed this elevated blood lead level, while under age six, and living in New Haven at the time.
This covers the current children testing at that level and age, as well as those who should have gotten recourse at the time going back three years.
The substitute policy put in place by the last administration used the less strict standard in which an inspection to determine the source of lead poisoning was a blood lead level of 20 micrograms or two tests showing levels of 15 micrograms within three months.
This is the language in state statutes, but towns can have a tougher standard. New Haven’s is the most strict based on the premise that, the longer exposure of a young child to lead dust and paint chips, the more damage it can do.
The city argued it changed the rules because it only had two lead inspectors at the time and it wanted to save money after losing a federal Housing and Urban Development grant .
Bond, in previous interviews, said her staff of inspectors have been provided with new computers and have been trained in the state system that tracks lead levels in children and new protocols.
The lead orders put on the land records from April 13, 2020 to March 25, 2021 during Bond's tenure total 91, according to her office.
As to the “filing of information on the land records,” Bond said this covers the abatement order, the abatement plan, the release when it is finished and a vacancy agreement. The information is important to tenants as well as anyone buying a house.
Under an abatement order, a property owner must clean up the source of lead tied to the poisoning of a child under age six whose blood lead level is at or greater than 5 micrograms per deciliter. Property owners are mandated to initiate abatement of toxic levels of lead within 45 working days of being notified.
Last October, the parties told Baio that the disagreement over the definition of the class had been resolved and they were then “working to resolve the substantive obligations, enforcement mechanism and proposed notice through conversations and Zoom meetings.”
In previous conversations with the Register, Bond had said the staff had been given updated equipment to carry out inspections and they were interviewing to have a full contingent of inspectors in place, as approved by the Board of Alders, including a health education position.
As the lawsuit was proceeding, the alders approved an updated ordinance that made it clear that inspections were tied to the blood lead level of 5 micrograms per deciliter.
This was the last battleground as the Legal Assistance attorneys convinced the board to drop language submitted by the corporation counsel’s office that would have given more discretion to the Health Department.
The Lead Poison Advisory Commission has met nine times since it was constituted last July.