IREM greater NY president opposes lead paint rule.

Dawn Carpenter, CPM and president of the Greater New York Chapter of the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) testified on behalf of the organization at the Environmental Protection Agency's public meeting on the proposed lead paint rule issued under the authority of Section 402(c)(3) of the Toxic Substances Control Act.

The EPA has published a proposed rule that would require individuals or firms (including maintenance staff of multifamily properties) who do renovation to take specified actions to reduce potential lead exposures to residents, especially children. EPA's definition of renovation includes any activity that disturbs more than 2 s/f of paint. The proposed standards would apply to all individuals of firms that do renovation for hire, including renovation contractors, maintenance workers in multifamily housing, painters, and other specialty trades. The proposed rule would require these individuals to be trained, to use lead-sale work practices and to be certified in the use of those safe practices and would require the accreditation of firms that offer renovation. Carpenter testified that IREM has several concerns with the proposed lead based paint rule:

The proposed rule requires that a "certified renovator" supervise each renovation--defined as any activity that disturbs more than 2 s/f of paint. IREM believes such a requirement will result in a disincentive for property owners to conduct regular maintenance on their properties. This could result in deferred maintenance of the target housing, possibly creating greater lead hazards. Due to the increased expense, administrative burden and time involved in complying with the rule, owners may need to defer small maintenance activities until they become a bigger problem.

In response to whether or not the rule should apply when the housing is unoccupied, for example, during turnover of a unit, Carpenter argued that requiring such work practices in a vacant unit would be unnecessary, as there is no threat of exposure when nobody is living there.

The proposed rule would require that signed and dated records be kept describing the work practices, sign posting procedures, containment and cleaning for every job. EPA expects this record-keeping burden to take no more than 5 hours per year. Carpenter strongly argued that this record keeping will be far more time-consuming than EPA believes.

The proposed rule requires that the "certified renovator" be present at the worksite on a regular basis to oversee work practices, but EPA requests comment on whether this individual should be physically present at the worksite at all times, and whether they should prohibit this individual from being assigned to more than one job at a time. IREM would argue that such a requirement would be unnecessary. Providing oversight by the certified renovator on a regular basis would be sufficient for quality control over the project.

The proposed rule does not require EPA be notified prior to beginning all renovation jobs, but requests comment about whether or not they should. Carpenter claimed that requiring EPA notification prior to all disturbances of paint over 2 s/f would be infeasible and would result in property owners deferring all maintenance until such time that they could take care of all their jobs at the same time to consolidate notification.

We urge EPA to stick with their proposal not to require such notification.

The proposed rule discusses fees for applications training. IREM urges the EPA to make the training for certified renovators free to help with the creation of this type of worker. EPA and HUD have provided free training for many of their other rules that has been helpful in gaining compliance. IREM urges the EPA to do the same with this rule.

The proposed rule does not require dust clearance sampling after each renovation project. IREM fully supports the reasoning EPA has used to not require this testing. Dust sampling is very expensive and time consuming. Such a requirement would absolutely result in deferred maintenance and deteriorating properties. We strongly urge EPA to stand by their decision and not require dust clearance sampling for renovation jobs.