EPA delays commercial lead paint rule proposal rule until 2015

Recently, the EPA postponed the lead paint rule for public and commercial buildings until July 1, 2015, a positive sign for remodelers. The EPA also revised an August 2009 settlement agreement with some litigants to merge the interior and exterior Lead: Renovation, Repair and Painting (LRRP) rule for commercial buildings, and take action by Jan. 1, 2017.

A proposal for exterior renovations for public and commercial buildings was to be issued in September 2012 and finalized by February 2014.

In its latest efforts, NAHB petitioned the agency to revise the residential rule and economic analysis in the absence of an “improved” pre-renovation test kit, and has continued to express concern about the enforcement of the residential LRRP rule.

The postponement of the commercial LRRP rule comes on the heels of a July 2012 report from the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General, which found that the EPA’s economic analysis of the residential LRRP rule underestimated the cost and overestimated the benefits of the rule. PR