Primed for Lead-Safe Classes
Offcuts
Helping Hurricane Victims:
Priceless
Paying to Clean Up California's
Air
Dyed in the Wood
Updated EPA lead-paint rules will
mandate certification
Under new rules proposed by the EPA on December 29, anyone who
disturbs more than 2 square feet of lead paint in regulated
housing while working for compensation must first acquire
certification through an EPA-accredited course. The training
would cover approved procedures for containing lead-paint dust
on a job site, posting signs outside a contained work area,
minimizing the creation of leaded dust, and cleaning up
lead-based-paint hazards after a job is completed. In addition
to obtaining certification, the remodeler, painter, or other
tradesperson would be required to adhere to and document
EPA-approved practices when working in regulated housing.
Initially, the target housing would comprise rental and
owner-occupied housing built before 1978 in which a
lead-poisoned child lives; owner-occupied housing built before
1960, unless the owner signs a statement that no children under
the age of 6 are in residence; and rental housing built before
1960, regardless of the ages of the occupants.
The second phase, which would take effect one year later, adds
two more categories: rental and owner-occupied housing built
between 1960 and 1978, unless (in the case of owner-occupied
housing) the owner certifies that no children under 6 years of
age are in residence.
EPA staff members say the agency is taking this two-phase
approach because many houses built after 1960 don't contain
lead paint. The extra year is meant to allow for the
development of inexpensive EPA-recognized lead-paint test kits
that could be used to determine whether lead paint is actually
present. Since the false-positive rate for current kits is
quite high — 42 percent to 78 percent, according to a
National Institute of Standards and Technology study done in
2000 — agency officials expect that the new regulations
will increase demand for better kits. If the improved kits
aren't ready on time, the second phase may be delayed.
The proposed rules themselves are behind schedule; the
Residential Lead-Based Paint Reduction Act, also known as Title
X, directed the EPA to come up with regulations by 1996. In the
interim, there was an effort to implement a voluntary program
called the Lead Safety Partnership, which the NAHB favored over
mandatory certification; however, the EPA abandoned this
proposal in May 2005.
The National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) has
joined NAHB in opposing the new rules, arguing that they will
increase costs and create delays without addressing other
sources of lead exposure. Both associations highlight their own
efforts to train members in safe lead-paint practices and note
that many remodelers follow these practices without being
regulated. NARI vice chair of government affairs Michael Heuser
questions whether there's even a link between remodeling and
lead poisoning. "It hasn't been proven that remodeling causes
lead poisoning. Show us some data that remodeling is causing
the problems," he says.
David Wilson, 2005 NAHB president, echoes that argument and
asserts that "more than half the typical renovation and
remodeling work is done by the homeowner, whom the EPA does not
regulate." He adds, "The money spent on implementing the EPA
rule might be better spent to help low-income households reduce
their exposure to old lead-based paint."
Currently, remodelers and specialty contractors who disturb
more than 2 square feet of lead paint must give residents an
EPA lead-hazards pamphlet and obtain proof of delivery (see In
the News, 11/05). For use with the new regulations, the EPA has
written a more specific pamphlet, "Protect Your Family From
Lead During Renovation, Repair, and Painting," that focuses on
lead-paint hazards caused by renovation activities. In
addition, at www.epa.gov/ lead/pubs/renovation.htm, the agency
has posted a sample form that contractors can use to document
their compliance with both the pamphlet law and the new
provisions regarding the presence of children aged 6 or younger
(see sample).
The EPA is taking comments on the proposed rules until April
10. Correspondence must include docket ID no.
EPA-HQ-OPPT-2005-0049; comments may be submitted online at
www.regulations.gov or mailed to Document Control Office
(7407M), OPPT, EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington,
D.C. 20503. — Laurie Elden
Offcuts
Rhode Island's Lead Hazard Mitigation
Act
was struck down as unconstitutional by a state
Superior Court. The law had exempted owner-occupied housing of
three or fewer rental units, but in January Judge Stephen J.
Fortunato Jr. disagreed with the exemption, writing, "There is
no reason to conclude that owners of two- and three-unit
buildings will protect the health of their child and
pregnant-women tenants with such zeal and such efficiency that
they do not require the same legislative stimulus to maintain
their property as do owners of nonexempted rental units."
Former manufacturers of lead-based
paint
lost another battle in January, when Wisconsin
Governor Jim Doyle vetoed legislation that would have required
lead-poisoned plaintiffs to identify the maker of the paint
that caused the poisoning. Given the difficulty of analyzing
paint to that degree, the law would have effectively protected
paint companies from lead-related lawsuits. The legislation was
meant to override a July 2005 state Supreme Court decision that
allowed a teenager, Steven Thomas, to sue a number of paint
manufacturers, including Atlantic Richfield Co., DuPont, NL
Industries, SCM Chemicals, Sherwin-Williams, and ConAgra.
American Cyanamid settled out of court to pay the boy $35,000,
reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Cement imports from Mexico
will
increase by almost a third — to 3 million metric tons per
year — under an agreement being negotiated at press time
by the U.S. Department of Commerce. As part of the deal,
antidumping duties are scheduled to drop over a three-year
period from $26 per metric ton to $3 per metric ton. In 2009,
all limits and duties would be removed.
In another development that will help ease
regional cement shortages
(see In the News, 10/05),
Florida's largest cement plant is increasing production after
getting approval from the state's Department of Environmental
Protection. Titan America's Pennsuco facility will now churn
out 2.4 million tons of cement per year, up from 1.8 million
tons.
A house built 7 feet too close to the
street
must be taken down, Baltimore City Circuit Court
Judge Alfred Nance ruled in December. Channel WBAL reports that
the builder, CK Williams, has declared bankruptcy, leaving
homeowner Deanna Malone with just two options: Move the house
or sell for a loss and start over somewhere else.
Helping Hurricane
Victims: Priceless
by Craig
Lord
For me, 2006 started off with the most rewarding
construction project I've ever worked on: I headed down to
Alabama in January with a group of carpenters to repair homes
damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The trip proved to be one of the
most worthwhile things any of us had ever done.
The excursion was inspired by another group of volunteers from
my town who had gone to Biloxi, Miss., to help with cleanup
after the storm; since I own my own construction company, I
figured I, too, could put together a relief trip. I contacted
the National Ministries of American Baptist Churches, which put
me in touch with Volunteers of America (VOA) Southeast. VOA
assigned us to Bayou La Batre, Ala., a small coastal village of
2,300 located 20 minutes west of Mobile. Until the storm, the
town's main industries — shrimping, fishing, and
boat-building — employed about 2,000 workers.
At 30th Street Station in Philadelphia,
the author's crew loads up the redcap with luggage and tools
for the train ride to Alabama.
We reported for duty at the VOA trailer in Bayou La Batre after
a two-day train ride from Philadelphia. During the ride into
town, we had noticed only minor damage — scattered blue
tarps, a few roofs with shingles missing, some trees down. We
began to doubt that the long journey would be worth it. Boy,
were we wrong!
At the trailer, we met Anthony Curcio, the VOA work coordinator
in Bayou La Batre. A graduate of Rutgers University, he is an
AmeriCorps volunteer on a one-year assignment. Anthony's father
is a builder in northern New Jersey, and while he was growing
up, Anthony swore he would never go into the business. Now he
runs the most difficult project I have ever seen.
Imagine a job where your crews rotate out every week. You don't
know their skill level until they arrive, and they may or may
not have the tools necessary for the job. "The hardest part is
matching skilled labor with unskilled labor," Anthony says. "We
get a lot of unskilled labor and not enough skilled." Many of
the volunteers are college students and church groups who need
instruction and supervision.
Now, compound that problem with another: having to pick and
choose what projects to tackle in a town where 90 percent of
the population has been displaced because their homes are in
such bad shape. Anthony carries a three-ring binder packed with
jobs that need to be done.
Needless to say, he was happy to see us, a skilled crew with
the necessary tools. Our first job was finishing a roof started
by another volunteer group; it was about 90 percent complete.
Between the quality of the work we were supposed to finish and
the condition of the house, we quickly learned that a perfect
job was out of the question. We were not in the kind of
high-income suburb we were accustomed to working in; we were
fixing houses that weren't built well in the first place and
probably needed work even before the storm hit. For example,
all the roofs were built with 1/2-inch decking over rafters on
24-inch centers. Thus, our modus operandi became: Do the best
you can and make sure the roof doesn't leak.
Although I hadn't roofed since the Carter administration, it's
like riding a bike — you never forget.
Our second job was a roll roof on the rear shed of a church.
This roof was covered with a temporary tarp that must have come
from a Nascar track: It was a huge Miller Lite ad. (Across the
street, the roof read "Ford.") We finished this job quickly,
but some of us were left covered with tar. In keeping with the
adage "improvise and overcome," we bought two cans of Gumout
carburetor cleaner from a convenience store and blasted the
stuff away. (If you ever try this, rinse with water immediately
afterward.)
At this point, we started to worry that Anthony had it in for
us because the church job had been a carpentry nightmare on top
of being a mess. When he took us to the third job —
tearing off and reroofing a 36-square roof on a house that,
because of structural damage, also required some rafter
replacement — we were sure he didn't like
us.
Students from Birmingham-Southern College tear off a house's
old asphalt roofing (top). Before the new roof could be put on,
hurricane-damaged rafters and sheathing had to be replaced
(bottom).
I told Anthony it would be tough to finish the job given there
were just five of us and we had only three days left. He said
he'd get some help, and sure enough, at 9 o'clock the next
morning (we started at 7 a.m.), he rolled up with 12 students
from Birmingham-Southern College. We immediately assigned one
of our men to instruct the kids on safety and organize them for
the tear-off. Meanwhile, the other carpenters and I began the
framing repairs. By the end of the day, we had most of the roof
torn off and about half a day left on the framing repairs; we
also had 36 squares to put back on and only two days to do
it.
Volunteers take a well-earned lunch break
(above). Grateful homeowners Alton and Joyce Nelson (next page)
provided the whole crew with down-home Southern
cooking.
Once again, Anthony had a solution: He arranged for another
volunteer group from Michigan — four men and four women
who were also roofing — to give us a hand. On Wednesday
and Thursday, there must have been 30 people working on the
job. The appreciative homeowners cooked lunch for the whole
crew on both days — red beans and rice the first day and
shrimp spaghetti the second. Like all the other displaced
homeowners, these folks were living in a FEMA trailer while
waiting for their house to be repaired.
Habitat for Humanity aims to mobilize
volunteer professional home builders for the construction of
more than 700 houses during the week of June 5. The rest of the
1,000 homes planned as part of the Home Builders Blitz 2006
will be built in hurricane-devastated areas under the direction
of Habitat's Operation Home Delivery, once those locations are
livable. For more information, call 800/422-4828, visit
www.homebuildersblitz.com, or e-mail
homebuildersblitz@habitat.org.
By 2 p.m. Friday, the roof was complete. We were tired but very
satisfied. As we said our good-byes, there were tears in the
eyes of the homeowners. I felt a level of satisfaction greater
than any I'd felt in my 30-year career. I also felt sad for the
people of Bayou La Batre, knowing how much work still lies
ahead of them and how few resources there are to do it. —
Craig Lord owns R. Craig Lord Construction Co., a custom
remodeling firm in Moorestown, N.J.
If You Want to GoInterested in volunteering? Here are a few
things you'll need to think about.
• American Baptist Churches requires proof of
health insurance and a current tetanus shot for every
participant. It provided travel insurance for each of
us.
• We took the train so we could bring our tools,
which we shipped with us on the same train.
• Unless you are a specialist (say, a plumber or
electrician), VOA can't tell you what type of work you
will be doing until three or four days prior to
departure.
• Since we would be sleeping on the floor, we
brought air mattresses and sleeping bags.
• We were on our own for meals, but there were
plenty of restaurants. Some teams cooked for themselves
at the church.
• Weather was in the seventies and mostly sunny,
but we did have some rain showers, so be
prepared.
• Elizabeth Stover of VOA set up our trip and
coordinated lodging. Here's her contact information:
Volunteers of America Southeast, 600 Azalea Rd.,
Mobile, AL 36609; 251/666-4431;
estover01@gmail.com. |
Paying to Clean Up
California's Air
As housing has become more scarce and expensive in
California's urban areas, people have moved farther away from
the cities, enduring long commutes in exchange for lower
mortgage payments. The resulting increase in building
activities and commuter traffic in the San Joaquin Valley has
contributed to pollution so severe it's triggered the state's
highest asthma rates and some of its poorest air quality.
Hence, as part of an effort to meet EPA and state standards for
ozone and particulate levels, the San Joaquin Valley Air
Pollution Control District started charging impact fees March 1
on new construction. Residential developments of fewer than 50
units are exempt; subdivisions of at least 50 units, commercial
buildings of at least 2,000 square feet, and medical,
industrial, office, and other buildings of various sizes from
10,000 square feet and up are subject to the new fees.
Opponents like the California Building Industry Association
argue that the fees — which they estimate will cost $670
million over five years — will lead to higher home prices
in a market where fewer than 20 percent of the homes are
affordable to families earning the median income for the
area.
Air-quality officials counter that average home prices will go
up a maximum of $1,770 by 2008, and then only if developers
don't take advantage of various clean-air options to lower
their fees: building to a density of at least five homes per
acre, refraining from installing wood stoves, increasing energy
efficiency, and building near retail outlets. Further
reductions, they say, could be gained by restricting 10 percent
of the deeds for affordable housing and providing sidewalks on
both sides of the street.
Proceeds from the fees will be used to fund efforts to reduce
air pollution in the valley, including paving unpaved roads,
putting cleaner engines in school buses, encouraging
alternative-fuel use, building bike paths, and subsidizing
public transportation. — Laurie Elden
Dyed in the Wood
Because of hurricane damage to southern-pine forests, there
may be more blue-stained lumber on the market this year.
Created by microscopic fungi that feed on nutrients in the
cells of the sapwood, the discoloration is not the same as
mold, which can be rubbed off the surface. The blue stain
doesn't affect the strength of the lumber — as the fungi
don't cause decay — and poses no health risks, says the
Southern Pine Council.