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Read. Follow. Verify.Pennsylvania Establishes Soil Lead Limits for Playgrounds and Authorizes Penalties for Violations
Last action · February 12, 2025: Referred to ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCE PROTECTION, Feb. 12, 2025Sponsors: Mary Isaacson and 19 others
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What This Bill Would Do
Pennsylvania House Bill 580 sets strict legal limits on soil lead levels at playgrounds and yards, capping bare soil at 200 parts per million on playgrounds and 1,200 parts per million in surrounding yards. The measure empowers the Department of Environmental Protection to issue compliance orders, shut down contaminated areas, levy administrative penalties up to $10,000, and recover cleanup costs from responsible parties.
Operators of child care centers, schools, and municipal parks face new legal liability and potential site closures if soil lead levels exceed statutory thresholds. Children playing in these areas experience reduced exposure to environmental lead hazards through mandated testing, , and enforcement mechanisms.
- Title 35 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes covers health and safety laws across the Commonwealth. context
- The Department of Environmental Protection is the Commonwealth agency responsible for developing and enforcing environmental standards and regulations. context
Who It Would Affect
Groups the bill's text would affect if enacted, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
School entities
Must ensure playground soils comply with new lead thresholds or face DEP orders, site closures, and financial penalties.
Child care centers
Subject to soil lead limits and potential cleanup cost recovery or operational shutdowns if contamination is found.
Department of Environmental Protection
Assumes new duties to enforce lead limits, issue compliance and evacuation orders, levy administrative penalties, and promulgate regulations.
Key Facts
- Bare soil on playgrounds cannot exceed 200 parts per million of lead.
- Bare soil in the yard surrounding a playground cannot exceed 1,200 parts per million of lead.
- The Department of Environmental Protection may issue orders requiring compliance or immediate cessation of activities on contaminated playgrounds and yards.
- Administrative penalties are capped at $1,000 for the first offense, $5,000 for the second offense, and $10,000 for the third and subsequent offenses.
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- Each day a violation continues constitutes an additional, separate, and distinct violation.
- The department may charge the added cost of corrective cleanup or removal to the responsible person and collect it by lien or other legal means.
- The act takes effect in 60 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the maximum allowable lead levels for playgrounds under the bill?
What penalties can property owners face for non-compliance?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Currently in committee. The next step in the legislative lifecycle is Floor Vote.
Procedural history
1 action- Feb 12, 2025HouseCommitteeReferred to ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCE PROTECTION, Feb. 12, 2025
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
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Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Establishment of Statutory Soil Lead Limits
The bill introduces specific, quantifiable bare soil lead thresholds (200 ppm for playgrounds and 1,200 ppm for surrounding yards) into Pennsylvania health statutes for the first time.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.palegis.us
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance75How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy40Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz35Current news / social attention level
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