For many organizations, lead and asbestos feel like solved problems — materials of another era, largely banned decades ago and presumed remediated. But they are resurfacing as operational, legal, and data-management challenges across the U.S., especially for owners of aging infrastructure.
The renewed attention isn’t driven by new manufacturing or widespread new exposure. It’s driven by legacy conditions colliding with modern realities: redevelopment, infrastructure investment, litigation, and the retirement of decades-old data systems.
The Market Dynamics Behind the Attention
Lead paint, asbestos fireproofing, PCB-containing caulks, mercury-bearing instruments, and other regulated materials were widely used from the 1940s through the 1970s and 1980s. While their use has been largely prohibited, they remain embedded in older buildings, transportation assets, medical facilities, laboratories, and industrial sites. As long as those structures stand undisturbed, the risk is often latent.
That changes the moment demolition, renovation, or major capital investment begins.
Before construction can proceed, owners must conduct hazardous materials surveys under OSHA and other regulatory frameworks. If lead, asbestos, PCBs, mercury, or other regulated substances are discovered, specialized abatement teams are required, workers may need to be placed under medical monitoring programs, and schedules and budgets are immediately affected. For property developers, utilities, airports, ports, and public agencies, this due-diligence phase has become a critical gating factor for projects.
At the same time, there is a second, less visible driver: legacy data. Many organizations are still relying on environmental databases built in the 1980s and 1990s, often on technologies that are no longer supported. These systems contain irreplaceable records tied to litigation, regulatory obligations, and long-term asset management. When those platforms age out, the risk is not just technical, it’s legal and operational.
Why Lead and Asbestos Are Only Part of the Story
Focusing narrowly on lead and asbestos misses the broader challenge. Legacy hazardous materials management spans a wide range of substances and scenarios: abandoned chemicals left behind by tenants, historic laboratory inventories, mercury-containing equipment from medical or industrial operations, hexavalent chromium from metal finishing, PCB-impacted building materials, contaminated but reclaimable soils, and even episodic discoveries such as medical or chemical waste in transportation and utility assets.
The distinction between hazardous materials and hazardous waste is especially critical. Hazardous materials are regulated under different frameworks than hazardous waste, and intent matters. Misclassifying materials can trigger unnecessary cradle-to-grave obligations, or worse: regulatory violations. Understanding use, storage, concentration thresholds, and regulatory jurisdiction is as much a data problem as it is a chemistry problem.
How Locus Technologies Supports Legacy Hazardous Materials Management
This is where modern environmental data platforms become essential. Locus Technologies’ software is designed to ingest, preserve, and operationalize complex legacy datasets while supporting current and future compliance needs across a broad spectrum of hazardous materials.
Organizations use Locus software to:
- Migrate decades of historical hazardous materials data from obsolete systems without loss of context or defensibility.
- Maintain long-term records required for litigation, audits, and regulatory inquiries involving lead, asbestos, mercury, PCBs, metals, and other legacy substances.
- Visualize hazardous materials spatially by layering survey results onto CAD or GIS maps of buildings, utilities, and transportation infrastructure.
- Manage hazmat, hazardous waste, and non-waste materials within a single, configurable system that respects regulatory distinctions.
- Support pre-construction due diligence, abatement tracking, waste handling, and post-remediation documentation.
Just as importantly, Locus Technologies’ software is flexible enough to handle what legacy environments actually look like — heterogeneous substances, evolving regulations, and decades of historical decisions — rather than forcing them into rigid, one-size-fits-all workflows.
Looking Forward
The renewed focus on legacy hazardous materials is not a temporary spike. As infrastructure ages, redevelopment accelerates, and legacy systems continue to fail, organizations will need defensible data, not just remediation plans.
Managing legacy hazardous materials is no longer only about what’s in the walls, soil, or equipment; it’s about whether your data, systems, and processes can stand up to modern scrutiny.
Locus is the only self-funded water, air, soil, biological, energy, and waste EHS software company that is still owned and managed by its founder. The brightest minds in environmental science, embodied carbon, CO2 emissions, refrigerants, and PFAS hang their hats at Locus, and they’ve helped us to become a market leader in EHS software. Every client-facing employee at Locus has an advanced degree in science or professional EHS experience, and they incubate new ideas every day – such as how machine learning, AI, blockchain, and the Internet of Things will up the ante for EHS software, ESG, and sustainability.
Dorian A. Bailey
Director, Alliances and Customer Success
Ms. Dorian Bailey leads all customer success and partnership endeavors for Locus Technologies, and she is the company’s in-house expert on embodied carbon, clean construction, and government procurement. Dorian is a frequent author and speaker, and she advises commercial and government entities on their use of software to manage environmental data, fulfill compliance requirements, and prepare regulatory disclosures.
Dorian joined Locus Technologies in early 2024 after working as the Chief of Science and Sustainable Construction for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. Leaning on her unique expertise in environmental chemistry and materials testing, and her 28 years in the Materials Engineering Unit of the Construction Management Division at the Port Authority, Dorian helped shape the Locus Sustainable Construction software application to effectively quantify and mitigate the environmental impacts of construction. Dorian has a master’s degree in environmental science from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), is accredited as a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM), and she is a credentialed Envision Sustainability Professional.
