By Tom Scarlett February 2012
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has “begun stepping up its inspections and enforcement” of its Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule for lead paint, an EPA official said during a webinar last month.
Don Lott, associate director of the EPA’s Waste and Chemical Enforcement Division, noted that his agency is weighting violations more heavily when human health is put directly at risk.
Additionally, Alabama’s Department of Public Health has put contractors around the state on notice: If they’re working in homes built before 1978, they need to be trained in dealing with lead-based paint. The state took control of enforcing the rule in late 2010, and now a one-year grace period given to contractors with existing EPA licenses is over.
Lead paint was banned in 1978, and the RRP rule is an attempt to regulate renovations of older homes that still have it. The regulation has been controversial and has drawn several rebukes from Congress.
During a webinar that was sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Lott said his agency will be taking more enforcement actions in 2012 for the rule than it did in 2011.
Last year, the EPA took three enforcement actions in the 38 states where it oversees RRP enforcement. Twelve states enforce the rule on their own, including Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.
The agency’s highest priority is ensuring companies are using the proper lead-safe work practices, Lott said, as well as ensuring companies are following proper training and recordkeeping guidelines.
Lott said that the EPA receives about 400 tips and complaints per month reporting uncertified firms and unsafe lead work practices. Those tips have led to about 1,000 compliance inspections of job sites to date, and, as a result, it was found that 60 percent of contractors on those job sites were uncertified. Still, the agency took just three enforcement actions.
In a related story, two companies face significant penalties for violating federal lead paint disclosure laws at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine and the Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut.
A complaint filed by the EPA asserts that Northeast Housing, LLC, and Balfour Beatty Military Housing Management, LLC failed on multiple occasions over several years to notify prospective tenants, including families with young children, about potential lead paint hazards in housing managed by the companies on the two Navy bases in New England. Notifying prospective tenants and purchasers of housing units helps parents protect young children from exposure to lead-based paint hazards.
The companies face a possible fine of $153,070 for alleged violations of the Lead Based Paint Disclosure Rule. EPA’s complaint asserts that the two companies failed to comply with the Disclosure Rule when they entered into 13 contracts to lease target housing for military personnel during the years 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and the U.S. Naval Submarine Base.
The housing at both bases is owned by Northeast, a joint venture limited liability company between the Department of the Navy and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Balfour Beatty Communities, LLC (BBC), of which the BBC affiliate is the managing member. There are approximately 25 target housing units located at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, where housing was built in the 1800s and early 1900s. There are approximately 735 target housing units at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, which was built in the early 1960s.
“Exposure to lead paint is a serious public health concern here in New England because of how much older housing we have. Further, military families make significant sacrifices to protect our nation, and the health of those families, as well as all families, should not be jeopardized by not being notified of potential lead hazards in the housing where they reside,” said Curt Spalding, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office. “Property managers and owners play an important part in helping to prevent lead poisoning by following lead paint disclosure requirements and making sure families are aware of potential lead hazards in homes.”
SOURCE: http://www.ieconnections.com/pdfs/newsletter/2012/IEC-02-2012.pdf