Lead Safe Schools Milwaukee: Environmental expert and community group call on DHS to protect children from lead hazards by closing regulatory gaps during emergency rulemaking window

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — An environmental health expert and Lead Safe Schools MKE are
calling on the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) to adopt comprehensive reforms to the state law that regulates lead hazards through emergency rulemaking before the state’s January 2027 federal EPA authorization deadline.

Under current law, two state agencies have different standards for addressing lead in soil, leading to unequal solutions and outcomes — often at a disadvantage to already disenfranchised communities. Lead Safe Schools MKE, a parent- and community-led organization, and Douglas Cieslak, an environmental consultant and former Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Hydrogeologist and City of Milwaukee Environmental Health Manager, have partnered to advocate for policies that ensure children are not exposed to lead hazards in homes and in schools and other child-occupied facilities. 

“The emergency rulemaking window is open right now, and the science and the law both support stronger action,” said Cieslak. "Wisconsin has the authority to update outdated rules and standards. “The only question is whether DHS will use this opportunity to be transparent and comprehensive.”

“Milwaukee families have waited long enough,” said Kristen Payne, a spokesperson for Lead Safe Schools. “While regulators debate standards, children are being poisoned in their own yards and in their schools. We need rules that protect every child, not just those in the right neighborhood.”

The Problem: Outdated Standards and Structural Inequity
According to Cieslak, more than 4,000 Milwaukee children are lead-poisoned annually, a figure adjusted for a 43% testing penetration rate based on pre-Covid 2019 public health data for children 0-6 years old with blood- lead levels greater than 5 ug/dL. Multiple Milwaukee soil investigations and national urban soil studies show that residential lead contamination is widespread, with inner-city soil concentrations typically in the hundreds of mg/kg and localized hotspots on individual properties exceeding 10,000 mg/kg.

Wisconsin’s current soil lead hazard standards are based on a 2000 EPA model calibrated to a blood-lead threshold the CDC abandoned in 2012. The standards are demonstrably not protective and are applied very differently between the DNR and DHS. As a result, the consequences are not distributed equally. In 2020, the DNR spent $170,000 per lot excavating
lead-contaminated soil in a predominantly white Glendale neighborhood with no documented childhood lead poisoning. That same year, less than five miles away, a DHS-regulated response to a lead-poisoned child in a predominantly Black Milwaukee neighborhood received bark mulch as a remedy at less than $100 per lot, with no monitoring and no public-facing continuing obligations to prevent future exposures, according to Cieslak. “This disparity leaves DNR environmental cleanups at gas stations safer than DHS-regulated cleanups on residential properties with poisoned children,” Cieslak said. Same contamination. Two standards. Outcomes that track race and income.

The Ask: Four Urgent Reforms

Cieslak and Lead Safe Schools MKE are urging DHS to include four provisions in the emergency rule package for Wisconsin Administrative Code ch. DHS 163:

1. Stronger Soil Standards — Adopt 200 mg/kg as the general residential soil lead hazard threshold and a lower threshold where children have documented elevated blood lead levels, applied to all soils (bare or vegetated), consistent with DNR’s NR 720 framework.

2. Spills Law Reporting — Require that lead investigations identifying soil lead contamination above DNR and DHS thresholds trigger mandatory reporting to DNR under s. 292.11, Wis. Stats. (the Spills Law), ensuring the state’s most protective remedial framework is applied uniformly at contaminated properties.

3. Public Access to Investigation Reports — Implement the non-discretionary mandate of s. 254.166(1), Wis. Stats., which requires DHS to make lead investigation reports publicly accessible. Current ch. DHS 163 has been entirely silent on this despite this obligation existing in statute since 1994, leaving families, tenants, homebuyers and landowners without this critical information to keep children safe.

4. Continuing Obligations — Require a public-facing enforceable database of restrictions and annual inspections at all properties where lead contamination remains in place, modeled on DNR’s proven BRRTS database and NR 700 series administrative code for long-term stewardship of contaminated properties, not voluntary registry participation.

The Deadline
The Wisconsin DHS Lead Technical Advisory Committee (LTAC) will meet April 23, 2026. Public comments are being accepted now. The federal EPA authorization deadline is January 11, 2027. A position paper supporting these reforms is available through leadsafeschoolsmke.com.
Individuals are encouraged to submit comments, send an email, or sign this petition in support. Organizations, attorneys, public health professionals, and community advocates wanting to join in this struggle can contact Lead-Safe Schools MKE.

Douglas Cieslak, PG, is a licensed Professional Geologist with extensive experience in environmental site assessment, hazardous substance remediation, and regulatory compliance under Wisconsin’s environmental statutes, including prior service as a Wisconsin DNR Hydrogeologist and City of Milwaukee Environmental Health Manager.

Lead-Safe Schools MKE is a community advocacy organization committed to ensuring lead-safe environments for Milwaukee’s children in schools, homes, and communities. Learn more at leadsafeschoolsmke.com.