Late last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as a result in large part of Congressional pressure from Senators Coburn, Collins and Inhofe, released a memo announcing the delay in the enforcement of certain parts of the recently implemented Lead-based paint rule.

Specifically, contractors, renovators, and others modernizing or fixing housing constructed before 1978 will now have until October 1, 2010, to sign up for a certification class and not have to be certified until January 1, 2011. The only remaining requirement is that these same workers do not willfully violate the EPA-mandated procedures for any work on a home built before 1978 (click here for more information on the rule and what the best standards are for dealing with lead-based paint).

This action comes after Senators Coburn, Collins, and Inhofe repeatedly requested that the EPA delay implementation of this rule because it failed to ensure that those affected by this rule had been granted the opportunity to become certified before implementation on April 22, 2010. This included successfully offering an amendment during consideration of a recent appropriations bill 60-37.

This rule by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was designed to help reduce lead exposure to pregnant women and children from dust caused by renovations and went into effect on April 22, 2010. Under this rule, anyone altering a home built before 1978 must take a certification class on how to become certified on lead-safe work practices by the EPA. This rule applies to any renovation that disturbs more than six square feet and requires that renovations are supervised by a certified renovator and performed by a certified renovation firm. Along with these requirements, all those seeking accreditation must pay a fee varying from $360 for general workers and $540 for firms, for the class and exam.

Unfortunately, the EPA failed to ensure that those affected by this rule either knew about this rule or had the opportunity to become certified before implementation. The result was that thousands of American workers could not go to work after April 22, 2010, because those affected by the rule without EPA certification did not want to risk a $37,500 per day fine for breaking the new law.

For instance, in Oklahoma there was only one organization offering certification classes and these classes were not offered to non-members of that organization. In Oklahoma, only 194 firms and 1,000 renovators were certified on the date of implementation even though half the homes in Oklahoma were built before 1978. In another state, the first class was not offered until March 30, 2010 – 23 days before implementation of the rule. Because it normally takes EPA between 30 and 60 days to certify workers taking this class, this means that no one in that state could have become certified before implementation of the rule unless they went to another state to take the class (click here for a list of when the first classes were offered in each state).