Federal appeals court orders EPA to revise lead standard within a year

In late December, a federal appeals court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to revise its nearly 17-year-old standard for dangerous levels of lead in paint and dust.

The agency has one year to do so. 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.

The Trump’s Administration request came after a six-year delay under former President Barack Obama. The court said the holdup was unreasonable, particularly in the face of new research on the hazards of lead paint.

The EPA under Obama acknowledged the need for stricter rules in 2011 and agreed to take action. The agency, though, failed to do so, and did not set timelines for modifying the rule.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.