EPA extends deadline for Lead Paint Certification
For those homeowners renovating a home built before 1978 stand up and take notice. The EPA’s Lead: Renovation, Repair, and Paint rule went in to effect April 22, 2010 and requires those who work in homes built prior to 1978 to be EPA certified. Those not in compliance face fines of up to $37,500 per day.
The EPA has agreed to extend the deadline and now is requiring contractor firms to enroll in training no later than September 30, 2010 and complete training by December 31, 2010.
The National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) has been pushing back hard on the April deadline to become certified because a lack of trainers has caused a log-jam and delay in the number of contractors who have been able to complete the program. For example, there is just one EPA trainer in the state of Oklahoma and only three in the entire state of Maine.
The extension of the deadline is a direct result of the efforts of Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), who in May successfully amended the Fiscal Year 2010 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill to provide more time to receive the lead paint training.
