By Steve Wing

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Lead: Renovation, Repair, and Painting Rule, issued in 2008, was to take formal (enforceable) effect on April 22, 2010. However, due to difficulties with compliance, the EPA has extended this deadline to December 30, 2010.

This rule mandates a number of specific practices for contractors to mitigate the health hazards associated with disturbance of lead-based painted surfaces in homes, child care facilities, and schools constructed prior to 1978.¹ Under this rule, all contractors in the U.S. conducting work on lead-based painted surfaces are required to be EPA certified and to follow specified work practices for preparation, clean-up, and record keeping. Painters, plumbers, electrical workers, general contractors, and a miscellany of other service providers will be affected. The rule applies to the disturbance of lead-based painted interior surfaces of six or more square feet and exterior surfaces of 20 square feet or more. Guidelines are also provided for window replacement and demolition in such facilities and homes. Under the statute, contractors not in compliance could be fined as much as $37,500 a day.²

Read more about EPA’s lead paint rule…

Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the EPA has proposed a rule that would regulate coal combustion residuals (CCR) for the first time.

CCRs, commonly known as coal ash, are residues captured from the combustion of coal at power plants and are typically disposed of at large surface impoundments in liquid (wet or slurried) form and at landfills in solid (dry) form. CCRs are currently considered exempt wastes under an RCRA amendment.

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By Pradeep Divvela, Project Chemist, Kelso, WA

Sequential extraction is an analytical process that chemically leaches metals out of soil, sediment and sludge samples. The purpose of sequential “selective” extraction is to mimic the release of the selective metals into solution under various environmental conditions.

One commonly used sequential extraction procedure is designed to partition different trace metals based on their chemical nature.

The sequential extraction process is typically accomplished in four (4) steps using:

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By Ed Wallace, Project Chemist, Kelso, WA

EPA Method 29 measures hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions from stationary sources for mercury and other metals. The Clean Air Act (CAA) requires all major sources to meet HAP emission standards reflecting the application of maximum achievable control technology (MACT). These sources include industrial, commercial, and institutional boilers and process heaters. The other metals to be tested are antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, nickel, phosphorus, selenium, thallium and zinc.

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EPA, in a recent study, found that concentrations of chemicals in recycled tire material were below levels considered harmful. Recycled tire material, or “tire crumb,” is commonly used in synthetic turf sports fields and children’s playgrounds.

According to EPA, public concerns have been raised in the past several years over the use of tire crumb materials, especially after high levels of lead were reported in some artificial turf fields. In 2009, the Synthetic Turf Council reported that artificial (synthetic) turf has been installed in approximately 4,500 fields, tracks and playgrounds.

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