Enforcing Lead Laws and Regulations
The goal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) enforcement and compliance assurance program is to protect public health, deter would-be violators, and level the playing field for companies that follow our nation’s laws related lead exposure and contamination. EPA's regulatory lead programs implement the lead laws and regulations associated with lead-based paint, renovations, and repairs, lead pipes, and cleanup.
The legacy of toxic lead exposure disproportionately affects communities with environmental justice concerns, especially those with a higher concentration of low-income households. The EPA uses its enforcement actions to correct this environmental injustice.
EPA, working with other federal agencies, and its state, local, and tribal partners, use multiple environmental laws and regulations to prevent or reduce expose to lead in the air, water, and soil.
Information on these programs is available from the Agency's Lead website.
The information below highlight EPA’s efforts through its enforcement and compliance programs to ensure that companies and individuals that violate federal laws addressing exposure to lead or whose actions may endanger human health and the environmental are held accountable.
- Lead in Paint
- Lead in Soil
- Lead in Water
- Lead in Air
- Lead at Federal Facilities
- Lead on Indian and Tribal Lands
Lead in Paint
Memorandum of Understanding between EPA, Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services
On February 26, 2024, EPA, with its federal partners – the departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Health and Human Services (HHS) – agreed to two memoranda of understanding (MOU) to ensure that children, especially those at high risk, are not exposed to human health risks from lead hazards. This “whole of government” approach supports the commitments made by the three federal agencies in their strategic plans and strengthens their shared work.
The first MOU between EPA and HUD reaffirms a 1997 agreement on coordinating their enforcement efforts addressing lead-based paint hazards in housing.
The second MOU creates a pilot program between EPA’s Region 3 (Mid-Atlantic states), HUD, and the Center for Disease Control (CDC), which is part of HHS. The program will facilitate information sharing about communities with high blood lead levels or higher lead exposure risks, in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, which makes up Region 3’s geographical area.
The two MOUs are available to download from the Lead Paint Information Resources box on the right side of this page.
Exposure to lead from deteriorated or disturbed lead paint is the single largest cause of childhood lead poisoning. To address this threat, EPA issued lead paint rules under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the Residential Lead-based Paint Hazard Reduction Act. Those rules require lead-safe renovations and abatements, pre-renovation education, and disclosure of information about lead paint and lead paint hazards. EPA inspects worksites and records of renovation firms, property managers, landlords, and real estate agents for compliance. The agency enforces civil administrative penalties for such violations through administrative actions and works with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and its U.S. Attorneys to compel compliance through civil judicial actions and prosecute criminal actions on EPA’s behalf.
Lead paint is a severe burden on underserved communities. Over two-thirds of homes with both lead paint and children under the age of six are low-income households. In 2023, EPA issued the Environmental Justice Toolkit for Lead Paint Enforcement Programs. This toolkit provides enforcement strategies and best practices for engaging communities about lead paint enforcement activities, targeting inspections in overburdened communities; and seeking effective legal remedies to enhance environmental justice.
EPA’s 2016 TSCA Compliance Monitoring Strategy describes how the Agency targets TSCA inspections, including for lead paint. The EPA’s priority focus areas for lead paint enforcement are updated biannually, with the most recent update for 2023-2024.
- The Agency’s policy for responding to lead paint violations with civil penalties is contained in two Enforcement Response and Penalty Policies (ERPPs):
Lead Paint Enforcement and Compliance Activities
- EPA Region 1 Settlement Leads to National TV Features on Lead Safety - On October 23 and October 30, 2023, Magnolia Network premiered Season 11 of its popular Maine Cabin Masters series with two episodes that include information about compliance with the RRP Rule. On April 11, 2023, the podcast “From the Woodshed” featured an EPA inspector talking about the importance of compliance with RRP. This innovative outreach stems from an enforcement action EPA Region 1 settled in September 2022. The October episodes of Maine Cabin Masters air at 9pm Eastern/8pm Central.
- Logan Square Aluminum Supply - EPA’s Region 5 and the Department of Justice settled alleged violations of lead paint renovation rules with this major Chicago-based firm. In addition to paying a $400,000 penalty and instituting a robust compliance system to protect customers, Logan Square is paying for $2 million of lead paint abatement work in lower-income properties located in Chicago and Chicago suburban communities with a high incidence of childhood lead poisoning.
- GreenBuild Design and Construction, LLC - EPA’s Region 10 took this Anchorage, Alaska firm to an administrative hearing over its repeated violation of lead paint renovation rules, including work practice rules. The administrative law judge issued a decision sustaining EPA’s allegations and penalizing violator, Greenbuild, for $25,609.
- APEX Building Company, Inc. - In a proposed consent decree lodged for public comment, NYC general contracting firm, Apex Building Company, Inc., agreed to pay the United States $606,706 and to implement significant injunctive to resolve an action bought in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) for lead paint violations involving renovations of 935 apartments in New York, many occupied by low-income tenants. In addition to ensuring future compliance, the company is required to conduct tenant and worker safety information sessions to mitigate potential harms it caused. The initial penalty assessed by the EPA was reduced, as required by statute, based on the defendant’s documented inability to pay the full penalty.
- CISNE NY Construction, Inc. - Two individuals, formerly co-owners of CISNE NY Construction, Inc., agreed to pay $25,000 each and to take compliance actions to resolve renovation violations in another SDNY enforcement action. The initial penalty assessed by the EPA was reduced, as required by statute, based on the defendants’ documented inability to pay the full penalty.
- Indiana Contractor Goes to Prison for Lead Paint Violations - The U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Indiana worked with EPA criminal enforcement personnel and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to secure a 16-month prison sentence for Jeffrey Delucio for falsifying compliance records and failing to use lead-safe work practices in multiple properties, including where a child had elevated levels of lead in their blood.
- Buffalo, N.Y. Landlord Guilty of Lead Paint Falsifications to be Sentenced - The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York secured a felony guilty plea from a Buffalo landlord who owned or managed dozens of homes where numerous children had elevated blood lead levels. Angel Elliot Dalfin admitted falsifying lead disclosure forms associated with nearly two-dozen properties and is scheduled to be sentenced in November. He faces a maximum five years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.
- EPA Secures Default Judgments Against Missouri and Kansas Contractors - EPA’s Region 7 office sued Superior Restoration and Construction, LLC of Overland Park, Kansas, and Askins Development Group, LLC of St. Louis, Missouri, for multiple violations of lead paint renovation rules. The Region secured default judgments from a hearing officer requiring Superior to pay a $44,680 penalty and Askins to pay a $42,003 penalty.
- EPA Secures Settlement with Tennessee Rental Company - Mid-Tennessee Volunteers Properties, LLC agreed to pay a $78,300 penalty over allegations by EPA’s Region 4 office that the company failed to make required lead paint disclosures in leases with the tenants of 15 properties in Tennessee and Alabama.
- Privatized Military Housing Investigations - EPA issued four national subpoenas to property management companies managing privatized military housing to assess compliance with the lead paint regulations and will take appropriate enforcement action as needed to ensure that our servicemembers and their families are protected from exposure to lead paint.
Regional Geographic Initiatives
As part of the EPA’s 2023 Geographic Initiatives, each EPA Region directed enforcement resources to communities with environmental justice concerns. Regions relied on a combination of strategies to reduce people’s exposure to lead in homes, such as compliance outreach to renovators and apartment owners; lead awareness outreach to communities and tenants; compliance inspections and follow-up enforcement actions to ensure changes in behavior and penalties for non-compliance.
All 10 EPA regional offices direct enforcement resources to communities, and in particular, communities with environmental justice concerns to help address exposures to lead. As a result, hundreds of actions are taken resulting in not only increased compliance with the laws pertaining to safe renovation practices and lead-based paint abatement, but these actions often include a number of other results including criminal convictions and fines; civil penalties; large abatement projects; national and local public service announcements to warn residents of the hazards of exposure to lead-based paint; blood lead level testing in impacted communities, training for renovators, and more.
The cases highlighted below are examples of recent compliance assistance initiatives and civil and criminal enforcement activities.
- Region 1’s (New England) settled three cases in communities with environmental justice concerns, recovering over $130,000 in penalties. Additionally, in Hartford, New Haven, and Fairfield Counties in Connecticut, Region 1 office provided compliance assistance to contractors and landlords, as well as to child-occupied facilities and property management companies.
- Region 2 (New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and eight Indian Nations) is investigating, initiating, and resolving enforcement cases with public housing authorities. For example, in 2023, Region 2 settled three LBP cases with two New York and one New Jersey public housing authorities in areas with significant environmental justice concerns, resulting in the protection of over 15,000 residents in over 150 buildings. The settlements included significant injunctive relief that includes certification training for staff and blood-lead testing for children.
- Region 3 (Mid-Atlantic) ran a lead-based paint awareness advertisement campaign on buses, bus shelters, and billboards for 12 weeks in Reading, Pennsylvania, Charlestown, West Virginia, Washington, DC, and Richmond, Virginia. The region settled three geographic initiative cases resulting in over $110,000 in penalties.
- Region 4 (Southeast) completed 238 inspections with 87% of the compliance monitoring activities impacting communities with environmental justice concerns. The Region completed 21 enforcement actions resulting in collection of over $445,000 in penalties. 20 of the 21 completed cases were in EJ areas. Five of the completed cases resulted from a geographic initiative in Miami, Florida.
- Region 5 (Great Lakes) is developing, initiating, and resolving enforcement cases that continue to result from 32 compliance monitoring inspections and activities conducted during geographic initiatives in Lorain County, Ohio; South Bend, Indiana and Peoria, Illinois.
- Region 6 (Southwest) continues to develop and resolve enforcement actions to address lead paint exposure and non-compliance in communities with environmental justice concerns. The region recently reached settlement of lead paint notification and renovation violations with a construction company that had televised renovation activities to a national audience. In addition to paying a penalty, the company agreed to settlement conditions under which it will produce a public service announcement video about using lead-safe work practices in renovations of residential properties and make that video available for informational training. The company also agreed to integrate lead paint compliance actions into three nationally televised episodes of a home renovation show.
- Region 7 (South Central) criminally prosecuted an environmental remediation firm’s project manager for misleading federal authorities about lead contamination in a Granby, Missouri city park after he was hired to clean up the site. He was sentenced to probation and a $40,000 criminal fine and his employer paid more than $2 million in civil restitution. The Region has settled multiple cases with TV show producers that required lead abatements and running public service announcements about the dangers of lead and importance of following EPA regulatory requirements for safe renovations. The Region has taken a range of actions as part of geographical initiatives in Missouri including distributing education materials, providing training, and conducting over 140 inspections in Springfield, St. Louis, and the southeastern areas of Missouri, focusing primarily in areas with potential environmental justice concerns.
- Region 8 (Mountains and Plains) held multiple compliance assistance trainings in Pueblo, Colorado for the real estate and property management industries and is developing and resolving enforcement actions resulting from 22 compliance monitoring inspections and activities related to this initiative.
- Region 9 (Pacific Southwest) continues to develop and resolve lead paint enforcement actions, including six settlements totalling over $140,000 in penalties. Region 9 concluded a bilingual compliance assistance project with outreach to 20,000 entities potentially engaged in renovation work regulated by the EPA’s Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) rule. The outreach effort resulted in 720 renovation firms obtaining lead paint certification from EPA.
- Region 10 (Pacific Northwest) focused outreach and compliance efforts in several communities with potential environmental justice concerns including Anchorage and Juneau, Alaska, Yakima, Everett and Tacoma, Washington; and Portland, Salem, and Milwaukee, Oregon. Over 70% of the Region’s 237 fiscal year 2023 lead-based paint inspections wherein communities with environmental justice concerns. An Anchorage, Alaska construction company was penalized $25,609 for violating the RRP rule by performing the renovations without certification and failing to (1) ensure the work was directed by either a certified renovator or by individuals trained by a certified renovator; (2) post warning signs around the work site; and (3) cover the ground with impermeable material to contain lead-contaminated dust and debris by the renovation work.
Lead in Soil
Storage, Disposal and Cleanup of Hazardous Wastes Containing Lead
To ensure that wastes containing lead are managed in a manner that does not endanger human health or the environment, EPA enforces requirements under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regarding the safe handling, treatment, storage, and disposal of wastes containing lead. EPA and the states verify compliance with these requirements by inspecting facilities, reviewing records, and taking enforcement action where necessary.
RCRA also includes authority to require the cleanup of certain lead contamination. RCRA clean-ups may be implemented through permits and administrative orders. Since 1984, EPA has issued hundreds of RCRA cleanup orders, many of which address lead contamination. In some cases (e.g., at some smelters and refineries), lead was the primary contaminant or risk-driver addressed by the order. Similar to Superfund cleanups, cleanups using RCRA authorities can be complex and take several years to complete.
Lead at Superfund Sites
Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, commonly known as Superfund), EPA first looks for the companies or people responsible for contamination (also known as potentially responsible parties (PRPs)) at a Superfund site. When appropriate, EPA uses Superfund authority to enter into orders on consent with, issue a unilateral order to, or asks a court to order PRPs to clean up the site. Where viable PRPs cannot be found, EPA can use Superfund Trust Fund resources to take appropriate action.
Lead is one of the most common contaminants found at Superfund sites across the country. Cleanups are often complex, can take years to complete, and can involve multiple enforcement actions at one site to accomplish. EPA has used Superfund authority to address lead contamination in soils, sediments, demolition debris, mine tailings piles and other situations. Superfund enforcement actions have resulted in the removal of lead contaminated soils from many thousands of residential yards, greatly reducing lead exposures to those playing, working, and gardening in those yards.
Lead in Water
Drinking Water
Control of lead in drinking water is handled under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Public water systems must comply with the national primary drinking water regulations. These regulations include health-based standards and monitoring and reporting requirements.
The EPA and states enforce the Lead and Copper Rule along with other important drinking water regulations. As part of a broader effort, the EPA issued the Drinking Water Enforcement Response Policy (ERP) in December 2009. The ERP is a new approach replacing the contaminant-by-contaminant compliance strategy with one that is more holistic. The ERP helps focus enforcement attention on public drinking water systems with the most serious or repeated violations, including noncompliance with the Lead and Copper Rule.
- Lead is rarely found in source water but enters drinking water through corrosion of plumbing materials and service lines.
Rivers, Lakes, Streams and Coastal Waters
The Clean Water Act (CWA) focuses on improving the quality of the nation's waters. It provides a comprehensive framework of standards, technical tools, and financial assistance to address the many causes of pollution and poor water quality, including municipal and industrial wastewater discharges, polluted runoff from urban and rural areas, and habitat destruction. The CWA prohibits anyone from discharging pollutants, including lead, through a point source into a water of the United States unless they have a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
Lead in Air
Enforcement of lead in the air is conducted under the Clean Air Act (CAA) to control the emission of pollutants from stationary and mobile sources. The Clean Air Act requires major stationary sources, such as manufacturers, processors, refiners, and utilities, to obtain operating permits and install pollution control equipment and to meet specific emissions limitations.
- The major sources of lead emissions into the air are ore and metals processing and leaded aviation gasoline. Other stationary sources are waste incinerators, utilities, and lead-acid battery manufacturers.
Addressing Lead at Federal Facilities
Federal facilities comprise one of the largest and most diverse sectors in the nation with a significant environmental footprint. They can play a large role in reducing exposure to lead from lead-based paint, water, soil, and air emissions at their facilities and in neighboring communities. EPA’s enforcement and compliance programs work with federal facilities to reduce lead risks, and to hold federal agencies accountable to the same standard of environmental compliance as other regulated entities.
Through outreach to the Department of Defense (DOD) and civilian federal agencies, OECA collaborates with federal agencies to identify how to improve compliance with lead-related environmental regulations to address children’s health.
Lead in Indian Country
EPA’s enforcement and compliance programs work with tribes to reduce lead risks and ensure compliance with federal environmental laws and regulations. Federally-recognized Indian tribes are able to implement, with EPA approval, a number of Agency programs to reduce exposure to lead from lead-based paint, water, soils and air emissions from facilities located in Indian country. Because only a small number of tribes are implementing EPA-approved regulatory programs, EPA directly implements most of the environmental programs, performs inspections, and initiates enforcement actions. EPA direct implementation in Indian country is undertaken consistent with the relevant lead-related statutes and both tribal and non-tribal specific policies and guidance.