A new federal regulation is set to take effect April 22 requiring that contractors working with lead-based paint in pre-1978 buildings obtain a special safety certification. But some in Montana’s construction industry say there aren’t enough instructors in the state to teach the new safety practices, and want the deadline delayed as much as a year in order to give more contractors the opportunity to get certified.
“What’s going to happen is guys are going to get projects and they’re not going to be legal to do them,” Terry Kramer, of the construction firm Kramer Enterprises and president of the Flathead Building Association, said. “This is to keep the public and the children safe and that’s what we should be doing, but just give us the opportunity to get there.”
Others who work in the construction or renovation business, however, say there has been ample time and opportunity to get the certification.
“There have been a lot of contractors in the valley who have been more proactive,” Diane Yarus, co-owner of Airworks Inc. Heating and Cooling Professionals in Kalispell, said. “I don’t think it’s something that has just sprung up last month and caught people unaware.”
On April 22, 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a new rule, which would take effect two years later, requiring that any contractors performing renovations, repairs and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, schools and child care facilities built before 1978 be certified and follow specific practices to prevent lead contamination.
These requirements apply to any contractor disturbing a site larger than six square feet indoors or 20 square feet outdoors, and violations can draw fines as high as $37,500 per day. To obtain the certification, contractors must take an eight-hour class, which costs about $200, on lead-safe practices. The firms employing these contractors must pay an additional $300 fee to the EPA.
But with only one instructor in Montana accredited by the EPA to teach the course, Kramer said he has had difficulty getting enough of his employees certified to work on multiple jobs.
“We just can’t get enough people trained fast enough to do the work,” Kramer said. “It’s physically impossible.”
Furthermore, the new requirement targets one of the few areas currently sustaining the struggling construction industry: Though little demand for new homes persists, contractors are still finding steady work doing remodels and renovations.
“We’re going to put more guys out of work,” Kramer said. “The market that is kind of keeping us alive is about to be more limited because of who can work in it.”
In March, Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., asked the White House to delay the new EPA rule out of concern contractors could lose work. When Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., visited Kalispell March 30, Kramer asked him at a Chamber of Commerce meeting if he would look into the issue and possibly push for a delay of the lead rule. Kramer plans to meet with Baucus and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., the week of April 19 in Washington D.C. and discuss the deadline.
“Having EPA implement this Bush Administration rule won’t solve the problem if contractors don’t have the tools to comply with it,” Tester said in a statement. “EPA needs to use some common sense, and make sure that if they are requiring training, that people have access to that training before the deadline.”
On Friday Baucus sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson asking her to consider whether Montana contractors, particularly in rural areas, have had adequate access to training opportunities prior to implementing the new lead-safe rules.
Mike Vogel is a professor and a specialist in housing and environmental health at the MSU Extension Service in Bozeman. Vogel is also running the only Montana-based program accredited by the EPA to teach the lead-safe certification course. He acknowledged that the lead-safe requirement and deadline probably should have been better publicized initially, but said he and other certified trainers from out-of-state have been offering the course all over Montana.
“There are hundreds of these trainers around the country and they can come into the state to do courses and they are,” Vogel said. “The publicity that folks have not had access to training, in my judgment it’s not true.”
Vogel estimates he has issued between 700 and 800 lead-safe certifications, and noted there will be three courses offered the week of April 19 in Bozeman.
“We have cancelled classes because there’s not enough people,” he added. “Like anything, a lot of people wait until the last minute.”
Yarus attended the Kalispell course and praised the Flathead Building Association for hosting it but said there was space available for more local contractors to get certified.
“It had a lot of participants but it wasn’t like folks were being turned away,” she said. “I just don’t think it was taken very seriously; people just kind of let it slide.”
“Out of respect to the people who have really made an effort,” Yarus added, “If they get a little bit of a market edge in the next couple of months, so be it.”
Nor does it appear, as of this writing, as if the April 22 deadline will be delayed, according to Vogel or the EPA.
“It’s not my understanding that the renovation, preparation and painting rule will be postponed,” Michelle Reichmuth, regional lead coordinator based out of the EPA’s Denver office, said. Her agency estimates 150,000 renovators across the country will be certified by the time the April 22 deadline passes, and she believes it’s a qualification those looking to hire a contractor will begin to seek out.
“I think it’s a credential that homeowners and customers will grow to appreciate as they become more educated about the rule,” Reichmuth said.
She invites those with questions about the rule or where to get certified to contact her at 303-312-6966 or visit www.epa.gov/getleadsafe.
“Millions of American children are still being poisoned by lead-based paint in their homes,” she said. “We’re providing these very basic, common-sense steps for contractors to take that protect children and families.”