Today we learned that a contractor was caught violating the EPA RRP Lead rules in Brookline, Ma.

Here are the details;

The Brookline Board of Health visited a project in town and found a contractor violating RRP practices. The BBOH asked to see the assigned Certified Renovator on site. The company had no CR on site. The workers said the Certified Renovator was available by phone. The town BBOH inspector said the CR has to be on site at all times in Mass. It turns out the contractor has 4 Certified Renovators but not one was on the job. The job was referred to the Division of Occupational Safety (DOS) and the contractor was asked to stop work until a Certified Renovator could be on site and other conditions were met. Fines, penalties and other actions are under review by the DOS.

This is the third enforcement activity reported in the past month. The DOS told me at the last meeting that enforcement will begin in earnest in early April. I confirmed this story today and was told that they will be out more often now that spring is here.

Contractors who have not registered their firms or received the RRP training need to think about working on pre 1978 homes without them. The company above was trained before Mass took over on 7/9/10 and said they did not know that the Certified Renovator had to be on site at all times during RRP work in Mass. They were following the EPA RRP requirement where the CR could leave the site after setting up containment and be available by phone. They claimed that no one told them about the Mass changes.

According to the EPA and DOS it is the responsibility of the Certified Renovator to check with the state to see if there have been any changes to the law.

As i receive more information on this RRP enforcement action I will post it here.  

If you hear of any factual RRP, OSHA, or DIA site audits please let us know so we can keep contractors up to date where enforcement activity is happening. 

mark the coach

"one voice for the residential construction industry"