The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued notice that it wants "to determine whether the EPA has an effective strategy to implement and enforce" the agency's lead-paint rule.
OIG gave its heads-up in a letter sent March 28 to two top EPA officials responsible for the Lead: Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) rule. News of the letter was first reported by InsideEPA.com, an industry newsletter.
"The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to begin preliminary research to evaluate the EPA’s implementation and enforcement of the Lead-Based Paint Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule (RRP)," wrote Jeffrey Harris, Director of the Toxics, Chemical Management and Pollution Prevention Directorate in OIG's Office of Audit and Evaluation. "Our objective for this project is to determine whether the EPA has an effective strategy to implement and enforce the lead-based paint RRP."
The OIG notice comes as EPA is at the start of a 90-day extension to propose an update to its standard for lead dust hazards and the regulatory definition of lead-based paint. This proposal has been coming since last December, when a federal court found that the agency was required to update both its lead hazard standard for residential and child-care facilities and its definition of lead-based paint under the Toxic Substance Control Act.
