Rhode Island Moves On Lead Cleanup

Rhode Island officials are seeking court approval of a plan that would require three former manufacturers of lead-based paint that lost a lawsuit last year to pay an estimated $2.4 billion to fund the cleanup of hundreds of thousands of contaminated homes throughout the state. The plan calls for Millenium Holdings, Sherwin-Williams, and NL Industries to cover the costs of lead testing and abatement in an estimated 240,000 housing units and several hundred schools and child care centers over a four-year period. In a joint statement, the three companies call the abatement plan "an astonishingly expensive and intrusive public works experiment."