The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) is initiating consultation and coordination with federally recognized Tribes regarding the development of a proposed rule addressing EPA’s soil-lead hazard standards. The soil-lead hazard standards support EPA’s lead-based paint activities program under Title X, or the Residential Lead-Based Paint Reduction Act, by providing the basis for risk assessors and abatement professionals to determine whether soil-lead hazards are present; the standards apply to target housing (i.e., most pre-1978 housing) and child-occupied facilities (i.e., pre-1978 non-residential properties where children under 6 spend a significant amount of time such as daycare centers and kindergartens).
On January 5, 2001, EPA promulgated a final rule which established two hazard standards for bare residential soil: 400 ppm for play areas and an average of 1,200 ppm for the rest of the yard. On May 14, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion to remand without vacatur a related 2019 final rule that established stricter dust-lead hazard standards and directed the EPA to reconsider that rule. Within the same opinion, the Ninth Circuit also noted that the soil-lead hazard standards did not identify all levels of lead in soil that are dangerous to human health and thus the lack of reconsideration of the soil-lead hazard standards was contrary to Title IV of the Toxic Substances Control Act. The Ninth Circuit instructed EPA to consider only health factors when setting the hazard standards and affirmed that the agency could consider non-health factors (i.e., reliability, effectiveness, and safety) when regulating implementation activities such as abatement.
OCSPP’s anticipated timeline for the consultation and coordination period is expected to occur from December 10, 2025, to February 9, 2026, prior to publication of the proposed rule. During this period, two identical informational webinars will be conducted. To participate, OCSPP invites you and/or your designee to join us during one or more of the following consultation sessions:
Tuesday, January 13, 2026 Tribal webinar 1 – Technical Briefing and Comment Period from 2:00-3:30pm ET
Zoom Conference Link: https://usepa.zoomgov.com/j/1609273565
Thursday, January 15, 2026 Tribal webinar 2 – Technical Briefing and Comment Period from 2:00-3:30pm ET
Zoom Conference Link: https://usepa.zoomgov.com/j/1606377494
If you have any other questions or we may be of additional assistance in the interim, please contact Lauren Achstatter, OCSPP’s Tribal Consultation Advisor at achstatter.lauren@epa.gov or 202-564-0631.
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