Musings Of The New Lead Paint Renovation Program (Part 3)

I am here again to give some food for thought in reference to the Lead Safe Work Practices Law (RRP - Repair, Renovation, Painting law) that all contractors must now be in 100% compliance with. As of December 31, 2010 all contractors big or small, private or subcontractors must be registered with the EPA as a lead safe firm if you are ever planning to do any work on any structure that was built prior to 1978 as well be EPA Trained. This most recent deadline was extended several times in order for the government to get it correct which is still somewhat questionable.

Last week I was working on a job site replacing 25 windows in a private home that was built in the very early 1900's and yes it was tested for Lead and was very positive for the newest toxin that our government has found to be so very harmful of late. This job was planned to take several days to complete especially when you add the Lead Safe Practices into the time line.

During the installation a crew showed up to the house next door and was also installing windows. They arrived on site and started carrying windows and materials into their customer's home and starting doing the installation. This concerned me a lot because they did not exhibit any intention of following the Lead Safe Work Practices on their installation. I watched this go on as did the homeowner of the house that I was working on and I just waited for the inevitable to happen.

I was removing debris from the house and the customer stopped me and asked me the question I was waiting for. The BIG why moment came. My customer asked me why I needed to follow the Lead Safe Practice laws and his neighbor did not. At this moment I was painted into the corner and had to explain to him that there were two explanations for what was going on...

I began my explanation that most likely the contractor was showing gross negligence and was risking his entire business a well as the safety of his crew and customer OR hopefully his house did not test positive for lead. My customer explained that his house was built at the exact same time as the neighbors so we pretty much guessed as to the answer of why?

With this being said I must now bring up the point as to who is following around the boots on the ground to make sure that this law is being enforced. When we first were enlightened about this law we heard that there were going to be fines of $37,500 per occurrence for the actual person(s) doing the infraction. I recently read an article on the internet (we always believe everything on the internet!) that this program was grossly underfunded by our present elected officials. This should be evident as to the fact that the EPA is now turning over enforcement to the local states when requested by the state. When this happens most contractors have already been certified by the EPA and they then must be trained and recertify with the state. We all know this is NOT going to be complimentary and again it will take more money out of the pockets of the small business owner.

As I am out traveling between jobs I have noticed that you see homes and businesses being worked on that the building our over 100 years old. There is no doubt in your mind that there is Lead present on these building and the people doing the work are completely thumbing their nose at the law. This in itself shows that there is not enough teeth in this law or public enforcement to stop this behavior. It also makes it very hard to sell a job when you are being under bid because of the extra cost to follow the law that some contracts are ignoring.

At this point I am wondering will the law actually ever be enforced to the point that it causes other contractors out there to follow the law who are not doing so now or was this truly a revenue raising move for the federal government. Have you given this any thought?

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