Enforcement of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule has so far yielded three noncompliance claims against contractors, with the first dated May 6.
However, as noted in a summary of a recent webinar presented to remodelers by the National Association of Home Builders, the agency will be stepping up inspections in 2012 and following through on tips likely to lead to enforcement action. Don Lott, associate director of the EPA’s Waste and Chemical Enforcement Division, told webinar participants that the agency already has conducted 1,000 compliance inspections of job sites and contractor-training certifications, as well as audits of records that contractors must keep for projects requiring lead-safe practices.
The RRP rule applies to residential renovation, repair, and painting on properties built before 1978. Contractors, landlords, and property managers are subject to the rule, although individual homeowners and tenants doing work on their personal residence are exempt.
Collecting and culling tips
The EPA currently is enforcing the rule in all 50 states, although 12 states (Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin) administer the rule on their own.
One indication of the potential scale of enforcement action, NAHB noted, is that the EPA has been receiving an average of 400 tips a month (many of them submitted via the agency’s compliance and enforcement page) and has found that 60% of firms inspected so far have not yet been certified to perform RRP work. NAHB maintains an on online database on RRP compliance, training, and certification requirements.
NAHB says members can access for free a recording of the webinar – and download related documents and slides – on the group’s “Webinar Rewinds” page (click here).
The webinar material is available to nonmembers for $44.95.
Lead once poisoned nearly 2 million kids a year in the late 1980s, now it’s down to about 450,000, still too many. It's not fear of fines that should motivate the remodeler to comply with lead safety rules any more than you should drive sober this season simply to avoid fines and incarceration. It's the human lives on the receiving end of lead paint dust and the victims of DUI--my son having been one last year. Drive safely this holiday, don't get behind the wheal with a buzz, or worst--and make it your New Year's resolution to never scrape, cut or sand windows and trim (and sometimes walls) in any home built before 1978 without using appropriate lead testing and dust mitigation strategies, even if a candidate like Newt won and scrapped the EPA entirely, the lead-safe approach is the right approach. Sober and lead safe, always.