"Work to get lead out of Garden State homes has surged in recent years, fueled by an influx of federal pandemic relief money and urgency from Newark’s drinking water crisis.
But it’s been years since Newark largely dealt with its water problems, with the subsequent calm taking attention away from lead issues. Now the federal aid is running out, even as experts say lead paint remains the main source of toxic lead exposure in New Jersey. Advocates warn New Jersey’s lead remediation programs face a fiscal cliff that will undo the progress made.
“If we do not act, this incredible lead-safe infrastructure and workforce will be gone and will be left with a thread-bear, incomplete group of lead-safe agencies struggling once again to mitigate the one dozen kids that are still being poisoned in state each and every day,” Ben Haygood, an advocate for the Trenton-based nonprofit Isles, told state lawmakers at a Senate Budget Committee hearing in Newark Monday.
The federal government gave New Jersey $180 million for lead remediation work – particularly lead paint remediation – through the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act. That money has been used in the years since to expand efforts on the ground, with the number of organizations and agencies licensed to handle lead remediation efforts around the Garden State growing from 13 before the pandemic to 55 today."
