On 1/5/2010 I went to the EPA Region 1 headquarters with Industry Expert Shawn McCadden and EMNARI  President Greg Antonoili. We met with EPA Region 1 Manager Nancy Barmakian, John Bryson and Bob Carr. We asked if there is one thing that they recommend we tell contractors they said; documentation, documentation, documentation...

A Mass contractor working in Boston last week survived a job site visit from an inspector working for the state. This inspector was not from the DOS or OSHA. The contractor was working on a multi-family property with several crew members and sub contractors. The state inspector armed with laptop checked out all the contractors working on the site.

Over the past month we have been inundated with requests from contractors seeking information on the differences in the Mass RRP Law. Hundreds of contractors were trained on the EPA RRP Law before 7/9/2010 when Mass was delegated to enforce and administer the law.

The Mass Division of Occupational Safety (DOS) recently came out with a brochure to educate homeowners on the Mass RRP Lead Law. This brochure talks about 5 reasons why a homeowner needs to hire a lead safe contractor.

Mass DOS announced it is planning on increasing RRP enforcement on contractors as soon as spring breaks. On Friday 3/11/2011 I attended the Mass DOS meeting with Mass RRP Training Providers. I asked several times how are they going to handle enforcement of contractors who are non compliant. 

On Friday I am going to a meeting with the Mass RRP DOS officials in Westborough to discuss RRP issues with other training providers.

Three weeks ago a contractor called me freaking out that he needed his Mass Lead Safe Renovation Contractor License as a condition to win a $60,000.00 kitchen job. He was RRP trained last spring and like many contractors did not send in his EPA Certified Firm Application. He has employees and needs to send in an OSHA Written Respirator and Worker Safety Plan to qualify for the Mass Lead license. Since he was not listed on the Mass License list he lost the kitchen job. Ouch!

At the contractor forum meeting on Monday the DOS stated that they have fined a few contractors for violating RRP practices. Some of the contractors in question also were found to have lead poisoning.

Hot of the press, the State of Massachusetts has made some changes to the Massachusetts RRP Lead Safe Renovation Contractor application.

Mass RRP trained contractors are holding back on applying for their Lead License. Last month I posted that there are over 4,000 EPA Certified Firms from Mass. Yet only 1000 firms have applied for their Mass license since 7/9/2011 when Mass took over. You would think that since the Mass license for firms certified before July is free that more would jump on board.