July 6, 2010

NRCA Comments on Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0173

The National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) appreciates the opportunity to provide comments on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) advance notice of proposed rulemaking with respect to its intent to regulate lead-safe work practices in the renovation, repair and painting of public and commercial buildings under section 402(c)(3) of the Toxic Substances Control Act. NRCA was formed in 1886 and is the one of the construction industry's oldest trade associations and the voice of professional roofing contractors worldwide. It is an association of roofing, roof deck, and waterproofing contractors; industry-related associate members, including manufacturers, distributors, architects, consultants, engineers and city, state, and government agencies; and international membership worldwide. NRCA has over 3,500 members from all 50 states and 54 countries, and is affiliated with 96 state, regional and local roofing contractor associations. NRCA members range in size from small commercial roofing and residential roofing contractors with less than $1 million in sales volume (40 percent of the current membership) to larger, commercial contractors. More than half of NRCA members perform both residential and commercial roofing work. NRCA members conduct approximately 60 percent of the work in the U.S. roofing market.NRCA is concerned that regulatory efforts to control the hazards posed by lead-based paint in public and commercial buildings, particularly with respect to exterior renovations, may be overly broad in scope and mandate burdensome and costly work practices that have minimal effect or no effect on limiting personal exposures to lead. NRCA agrees with EPA’s comment with respect to public and commercial buildings, target housing and child-occupied facilities that “each type of building may present a different level of exposure to occupants.” In that regard, NRCA believes that the advanced notice of proposed rulemaking does not fully acknowledge that many factors must be analyzed and proposed regulatory controls scrutinized to establish an effective management approach to lead-based paint hazards. Some of those factors include the nature of the exterior tasks performed on public and commercial buildings; the urban, suburban or rural nature of the location of a structure; the building’s workforce population and the presence of the workforce during lead-based paint activities; the number of windows, doors, roof hatches and other entry and exit points of access to exterior activities; the proximity of adjacent structures and likelihood of track-in lead contamination to those structures; the specific public or commercial building workforce’s unique work rules and practices with respect to everyday work clothing and work shoe wear; and the physical distance separating the building workforce from the lead-based paint activities. Commercial buildings generally are designed, built and used for purposes other than public occupancy or interaction. NRCA understands that this fact does not diminish the need to protect the building’s occupants from lead-based paint hazards but it may suggest procedures different from those applicable to targethousing and child-occupied facilities for protecting those occupants and members of the public who may be in proximity to the building. NRCA believes that regulations to control lead-based paint exposures with respect to public and commercial properties should align with the risks posed to the occupants and the general public so that resources are focused on those areas of exposure that pose the severest and most likely threat to the most susceptible persons. Currently available research, some of which EPA references in support of this notice of rulemaking, appears to involve projects conducted on residential and child care facilities, for example, exposure and track-in dust studies related to renovations of homes. NRCA believes that the results of those studies may not be appropriately transferable to serve as the foundation for regulation of lead-based paint hazards in all public and commercial structures. It seems clear, and EPA appears to concur, that much more investigation and analysis of renovation and repair activities on public and commercial structures is needed to satisfy a due diligence requirement for imposing regulations with a broad scope of coverage. EPA’s statement that “...the agency expects that partial demolition and similar renovation activities would be expected to release similar types of lead-based paint dust particles with the ability to travel long distances and contaminate soil and other horizontal surfaces...” appears to reflect an agency disposition toward overly broad regulation that may lump all renovation activities in with building demolition. Although this statement was made in the context of an introductory request for further research and data collection,NRCA cautions that resulting EPA regulation in this area should not be a one-sizefits-all mandate that treats gutter replacements on commercial buildings in the same manner as a complete demolition of a structure. NRCA believes that proposedregulation of lead-based paint hazards that does not take into account, in a most comprehensive manner, the nature of the renovation tasks undertaken in public and commercial structures will result in ineffective government compliance efforts, waste of private resources and a negligible impact on the health of those that the regulation initially sought to protect. Specific exterior tasks involving lead-based paint warrant focused research and analysis and NRCA believes that certain exterior tasks related to roofing system repair or replacement may involve incidental disturbance of lead-based paint that can be managed safely with little or no chance of harmful effects on building occupants or the general population. Some tasks may justify an exclusion from regulatory controls. Many incidental tasks involve building elements that are not the primary components to which the majority of work activities are focused but must be removed, relocated or displaced in order to accomplish the primary project tasks. For example, reroofing a commercial structure often may involve removal of rooftop accessories or components that may contain lead-based paint. Painted flashings, wood trim or siding and fan or ventilator shrouds are just a few examples of such components. Although such components separately may not be of large size, on even a small project the aggregation of the components may easily exceed the 20-square-foot exclusion for exterior work currently contained in the residential and child-occupied facilities regulations. However, removal of such elements located inside the roof perimeter would appear to involve no threat of contamination of exterior ground areas, walkways or entrances typical to many track-in dust hazards. In such an instance, exterior containments, barriers and warning signs may be superfluous to worker or public protection. All that may be required ismanaging the hazard at the point of removal or disturbance so that any lead-based paint particles or dust are contained and discarded properly—this can be accomplished with well-grounded, established work practices. It may be appropriate in those circumstances to establish an unlimited square foot exclusion from the public/commercial regulations for disturbance of such incidental components (with presumed lead-based paint) when proper work practices are followed. Proper work practices likely would involve the use of PPE—gloves, eye protection, long-sleeve shirt—and proper debris containment through the use of plastic sheeting, HEPA vacuuming or sweeping and disposal using plastic garbage bags. NRCA believesthat sampling, monitoring and cataloging appropriate roofing projects for leadbased paint hazards in this regard may be helpful in determining the impact of roofing tasks on lead-based paint hazards and suggesting tailored regulations or

exclusions. NRCA is willing to partner with EPA and other interested stakeholders to assist in research and analysis that can form the basis for suitable regulation of tasks that roofing contractors may be engaged in related to lead-based paint

hazards.

Bill Good Executive Vice President National Roofing Contractors Association 10255 West Higgins Road Suite 600 Rosemont, IL 60018-5607