The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced 17 enforcement actions for violations of the Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (LRRP) rule. EPA believes that far too many firms are not complying with the LRRP requirements; a violation could cost you $37,500 per day. Click here for AGC’s Fact Sheet on what the LRRP rule requires.
In April 2008, EPA issued final LRRP rules regulating paid contractors who perform renovations, repairs and/or painting projects in most pre-1978 “target housing” and “child-occupied facilities” that have, or are assumed to have, lead-based paint. That program took full effect in April 2010. It requires that contractors and subcontractors be properly trained and certified and use lead-safe work practices to ensure that lead dust is minimized – unless you prove through testing that the job will not disturb lead paint. All firms must be certified (even sole-proprietors) as well – plus there are pre-renovation education requirements, record retention requirements and more! Click here for AGC’s Fact Sheet.
The enforcement actions address violations of the LRRP rule, including 14 actions where the contractor failed to obtain certification prior to performing or offering to perform renovation activities on pre-1978 homes, where lead is more likely to be present. Other alleged violations included failure to follow the lead-safe work practices, which are required to reduce exposure to lead-based paint hazards.
The 17 enforcement actions include 14 administrative settlements assessing civil penalties of up to $23,000. These settlements also required the contractors to certify that they had come into compliance with the requirements of the LRRP rule. Additionally, EPA filed three administrative complaints seeking civil penalties of up to the statutory maximum of $37,500 per violation. As required by the Toxic Substances Control Act, a company or individual’s ability to pay a penalty is evaluated and penalties are adjusted accordingly.
AGC reported last February that EPA had announced 16 enforcement actions for violations of the LRRP rule and that the Agency was continuing to conduct compliance monitoring inspections and outreach to prevent exposure to lead dust.
EPA Losing Money on Lead Program
According to a recent report from EPA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), EPA is losing money on its lead-based paint program. Based on the Agency’s estimates since the Lead Renovation, Repair, and Painting (LRRP) rule went into effect in 2010, the total loss will amount to $16.4 million by 2014.
LRRP program administration costs are exceeding fee collections by $25.3 million for 2011 through 2014, the OIG report states. Several issues are contributing to the EPA’s unrecovered costs, according to the report, including the fact that renovation/repair firm participation is lower than projected. EPA far overestimated the number of renovations that would take place, as well as the expected number of participating firms. EPA was expecting to certify almost 300,000 companies by now, but the total is closer to 100,000 firm certifications.
EPA estimated the program costs and related fee collections to be $61.5 million for the first year and $22 million for each of the subsequent four years. The actual fee collections were just $22 million for FY 2010 and $9.1 million for FY 2011.
What will EPA do? It looks like EPA will be “collecting more lead fees to recover more of its costs.” Yes, that means you should expect an increase in certification fees and a high enforcement presence in the near term.
More Information
More information about the settlements is on EPA’s website at www.epa.gov/enforcement/waste/cases/lrrp050213.html. Make sure you are meeting EPA’s LRRP requirements. If you are not, it could cost you thousands of dollars in fines. Click here for AGC’s Fact Sheet on what the LRRP rule requires. For more information, visit EPA’s website at http://www.epa.gov/lead/rrp/index.html or contact the National Lead Information Center at 1-800-424-LEAD (5323).
If you have additional questions, contact Leah Pilconis, senior environmental advisor to AGC, at pilconisl@agc.org.