Chapter 4 - Growing pains—new regulations, enforcement, capacity, and proof emerge

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By 1995 Congress had appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars for lead paint remediation, but most of it remained unspent due to a lack of scientific expertise at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and inadequate local capacity. HUD hired a wave of scientists and embarked on efforts to expand the local workforce, which accelerated the number of remediated houses. The focus on science was reflected in the new HUD guidelines on technical inspection, risk assessment, remediation and other procedures that were later adopted in local, state, and federal regulations. They focused on lead dust and both long- and short-term remediation. A new task force was formed to address liability, insurance, and other issues that Title X had not resolved in 1992. New research on lead dust sampling and standards enabled HUD to promulgate them in 1999 and EPA in 2001. Each agency adopted different scientific modeling approaches due to differences in units of measure, practicality, detection limits, correlation with blood lead level, and applicability to housing and hazardous waste sites and other matters; yet the two agencies adopted numerically consistent lead dust standards. A Congressionally mandated scientific study of HUD’s lead hazard control grant program, covering over 3000 housing units in 14 jurisdictions showed the new lead paint identification and remediation methods resulted in a 37% improvement in children's blood lead levels and a 66%–95% improvement in lead dust, producing greater confidence that the new approach was working. A later study found the interventions remained durable for at least 12 years. This research led to the reform of virtually all federally assisted housing lead paint regulations in 1999, despite last-minute political interference from Congress and the HUD Secretary at the time. New paint lead measurement technologies appeared, stimulated by new government quality control programs, covering both field and laboratory methods. The first federal enforcement actions of the lead paint disclosure law appeared in the late 1990s, resulting in widespread inspection and remediation.