United States
                       Environmental Protection
                       Anencv	
Office ofthe
      Administrator
                                           EPA-100-F-00-045
                                                 September2000
                                                 fhttn7/www ena nnvl
     EPA
WHAT IS
PROJECTXL?
SUM MARY OF
THE LEAD SAFE
BOSTON
PROJECT
SUPERIOR
ENVIRONMENTA
LPERFORMANCE
FLEXIBILITY
                      ProjectXL: Lead Safe
                      Boston
                                                    ECONOM
                                                    INN OVA'1' ON
Project XL, which stands for "excellence and Leadership," is a national initiative
that tests innovative ways of achieving better and more cost-effective public
health and environmental protection. The information and lessons learned from
Project XL are being used to assist the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) in redesigning its current regulatory and policy-setting approaches.
Project XL encourages testing of cleaner, cheaper, and smarter ways to attain
environmental results superior to those achieved under current regulations and
policies, in conjunction with greater accountability to stakeholders. It is vital that
each project tests new ideas with the potential for wide application and broad
environmental benefits. As of October 2, 2000,  over forty pilot experiments  are
being implemented and several additional projects are in various stages of
development.

Lead Safe Boston (LSB) is a federally-funded de-leading assistance program
that operates under Boston's Department of Neighborhood Development. LSB
collaborates with state agencies and private organizations to prevent lead
poisoning of young children by working to control lead hazards in the highest risk
areas of the city.  Boston has an estimated  153,064 units of housing containing
lead-based  paint. Approximately 69,500 of those units are occupied by families
with young children. In this XL project, LSB seeks to reduce the cost of lead
abatements in residential housing, and then use the savings to conduct
approximately 12 additional residential lead  abatements, potentially reducing
lead exposure risks for approximately 30 children in Boston's Dorchester and
Roxbury neighborhoods. These additional abatements will be done according to
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) procedures. LSB also will share the
results of this project nationally with any individual or contractor performing lead
abatement activities in residential housing units - ultimately protecting
thousands of children from lead poisoning.  This XL project, EPA's 47th, was
signed on October 2, 2000.

This XL project will reduce the risk of childhood lead poisoning by allowing more
lead abatements to occur in residential housing units. Specifically, with funding
available from HUD, LSB will be able to perform  approximately 12 additional
lead abatement projects. This would protect approximately 25 to 30  additional
children from lead poisoning.  Moreover, on a national level, EPA's new lead
policy, developed as part of this XL project,  may ultimately protect thousands of
children from lead poisoning.

This XL project extends use of provisions in the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act Hazardous Waste Exclusion (HWE) Rule that allow LSB to
forego costly toxicity testing, and to dispose of lead debris from their residential
lead abatement projects in municipal solid waste landfills.  EPA's new lead policy
reinterprets  existing HWE regulations so that they apply to contractors

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STAKEHOLDER
INVOLVEMENT
                     performing lead abatement activities in residential houses. These new
                     provisions apply not only to Lead Safe Boston, but to any contractor in the
country that removes or abates lead-based paint from private residences.

Lead Safe Boston developed a formal stakeholder outreach process that
included hosting public meetings and comment periods at key points throughout
the project.
                     Will streamlining lead removal procedures cut costs and reduce the
APPROACHES TO   time associated with handling and disposing of lead in residential
BE TESTED         housing?
CONTACTS
FOR
ELECTRONIC
INFORMATION
Regional Contact:
EPA/XL HQ:
Project Sponsor:
Mike Hill
John DuPree
Kenneth Griffin
617-918-1398
202-260-4468
617-635-0444
More information about Project XL is available on the Internet at
http://www.epa.gov/ProjectXL, or via Project XL's Information Line at
202-260-5754.

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