PDCA Comments Sent to EPA

On April 1, 2013, PDCA submitted the following document as comments to the Proposed Expansion of the RRP Rule.

Click here to download PDCA Comments to Proposed RRP Commercial Regulations

Public & Commercial RRP Comment Period

I just received this EPA Email: Renovations of homes and child-occupied facilities built prior to 1978 must be performed by certified contractors using lead-safe work practices. EPA is currently in the process of determining whether renovation, repair, and painting activities on public and commercial buildings might also create lead-based paint hazards. For those activities that do create lead-based paint… Continue Reading

EPA Fines 16 Firms for Violations of RRP

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced 16 enforcement actions for violations of the lead-based paint Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule (RRP). A priority for EPA’s enforcement program is to protect children, and others, from exposure to lead dust that can cause lead poisoning by ensuring that renovators follow the RRP and other… Continue Reading

Follow Up on Commercial RRP Delay

Mr. Burt Olhiser, PDCA RRP Committee Member and Lead Paint Subject Matter Expert just sent this link to a very good article published last Friday on Paint Square. Go to the article here.

EPA Delays Commercial RRP Until 2017

Big thanks to the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. (ABC) for their news post: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Sept. 13 delayed for nearly three years a proposal to expand its Lead Safe Renovation, Repair and Painting Program (RRP) to include commercial buildings.Read the entire article here

New Court Ruling Against Reinstating Opt-Out Provision

from Bloomberg BNA A federal appeals court June 22 upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to remove a provision from its lead-based paint renovation rule that had allowed contractors to opt out of certain protections against lead exposure (National Ass’n of Home Builders v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 10-1183, 6/22/12). Read the entire article here

NAHB Has Impact – Working to Improve EPA’s LRRP

Citing a response to concerns raised by the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders), Reps. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) and a bipartisan list of original co-sponsors yesterday introduced legislation to make improvements to the EPA’s LRRP rule.  Read article  

CDC Lowers Threshold for Lead Poisoning

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut its threshold level for defining lead poisoning in children to 5 micrograms per deciliter on Wednesday from 10, marking the first such reduction in 20 years. Source – David Beasley/Reuters via the Chicago Tribune –  Read Article

EPA’s RRP Regulation Fails to Protect All Children

A great article on Painting Pro Times written by RRP Work Group Member Mark Casale on how EPA’s RRP Regulation Fails to Protect All Children. Mark Casale is President and GM of Hingham Painting and Decorating, Accord MA and a RRP Certified Contractor.  Mark also serves as Editor of Painting Pro Times.

EPA Fines RRP Violators

In a news release dated April 5th, the EPA announced three enforcement actions related to RRP and other Lead issues.  Individuals and companies were cited in Rockland, Maine, Edison, New Jersey and Omaha, Nebraska.  The news release included what I found to be an interesting sentence: “As required by the law, a company or individual’s… Continue Reading

Senator Inhofe Introduces Bill to Improve LRRP Rule

The Lead Exposure Reduction Amendments Act of 2012 Restores the “Opt-Out Provision” which would allow homeowners without small children or pregnant women residing in them to decide whether to require LRRP. Suspends the LRRP for homes without small children or pregnant women residing in them, if EPA cannot approve one or more commercially available test… Continue Reading

Randy Fornoff Joins PDCA RRP Work Group

We are pleased to announce Randy Fornoff’s decision to serve on the PDCA RRP Work Group.  Randy is President of MTS Painting and Property Services, Inc, in Phoenix, AZ. He brings a great depth of first hand RRP experience and advocacy work to the work group and adds one more set of RRP Trainer credentials to… Continue Reading

EPA and OSHA Now Working Together

It’s Official! The EPA and OSHA will coordinate their efforts when it comes to Lead. In a ‘memorandum of understanding’ (MOU) signed by the the Region 1, New England Regional Administrators for both EPA and DOL’s OSHA. the goal as stated of the agencies entering into the MOU is to “improve and optimize the combined… Continue Reading

National Survey of Painting and Decorating Contractors

Painting and Decorating Contracting Business Owners: Your help is needed! We need hundreds of participants to take the national survey for painting and decorating contractors regarding RRP Rules. Help spread the word everywhere you can.  The RRP Workgroup will publish a comprehensive report and articles about the survey results.    

Remodelers Say Lead Paint Rules Costing Jobs, Raising Prices

According to the survey Professional Remodeler conducted, that surveyed hundreds of remodeling contractors, emodelers are losing projects to uncertified contractors under the higher costs of LRRP rules.  Read the HousingZone.com article.

EPA Enforcement Officer’s RRP Related RFI Letter

Through an email from Denver painting contractor Ross Haymes of Calco Painting, and his sharing of a blog post,  I came to read that post on the Green Education Services blog entitled ‘A Closer Look: EPA’s Enforcement of the RRP Rule‘.  Thanks Ross! The post tells the story of a contractor attending a EPA Lead Renovator training… Continue Reading

Access the News Room of Your Regional EPA Office

EPA has ten regional offices, each of which is responsible for several states and territories, and each with its own Newsroom. Visit the EPA Newsrooms Page and scroll down to the United States map and select a region by clicking within the area of the map covered by the region, or choose your state in… Continue Reading