New rules paint groups into corner

Paint St. Pete Proud and the city's Operation Paintbrush have been forced to change their ways because of a federal lead paint law.

By BRYAN GILMER

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 4, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- For years, a few volunteers with a pressure washer, paintbrushes and a few buckets of paint could spruce up a poor family's or a retiree's old house at virtually no cost.

But under new federal regulations that will take effect in September, the process will get a lot more complicated and expensive for homes built before 1978.

That makes doing a good deed so difficult that at least one volunteer organization has stopped painting houses.

Paint St. Pete Proud traditionally has painted up to 50 houses each year during an annual weekend blitz.

Its new name? St. Pete Proud.

"It's hard to say it without using the word "paint,' " said board member Lee Gilgosch.

The group has turned its attention to landscaping.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development created the lead paint rules, and the St. Petersburg group is subject to them because it receives state grant money for supplies.

They say a contractor must test the home for the presence of lead-based paint. If it is found, a crew trained in lead abatement must remove loose paint using special techniques. Learning them requires a training class. Amateur pressure washing may be easy and quick, but it's out.

The government enacted the regulations primarily to protect children from developmental damage that eating or breathing lead paint flakes or dust can cause.

Officials never intended for volunteer groups to stop their good work, said Dave Jacobs, the director of HUD's Office of Lead Hazard Control.

"It is possible to train people to work safely with lead paint," Jacobs said. "We're talking about some dust suppression techniques and cleanup afterward to make sure we don't leave something behind."

But the shortest course in those techniques lasts a day. Not nearly as easy as grabbing a paintbrush and donating a Saturday to a painting project.

"It's just way, way too expensive," Gilgosch said. "What we estimated it would cost to meet their guidelines is a minimum of $5,000" per house, including liability insurance the group would have to buy in case a family claimed harm from lead dust left behind.

"We felt that it was just way, way too expensive for a volunteer effort," Gilgosch said, although he acknowledges the lead regulations probably are needed.

As for training, there isn't any available here.

"There is no certified training course in Florida at this point," said Bob Rowan of the city of St. Petersburg Housing and Neighborhood Improvement Department, which must train city workers in the new techniques. The city is bringing in trainers from the Georgia Institute of Technology to set up a local course.

The city's own Operation Paintbrush program is another that can no longer be elegant in its simplicity.

It used to work like this: If a code enforcement officer found peeling paint on the outside of someone's house, the city gave the person vouchers for free paint and supplies instead of a citation. Problem solved for about $100, and the neighborhood looked nicer.

"It was as easy as pie," said Lorraine Wade of 846 60th Ave. NE, who used the program last year.

Now, the city must hire a firm to test for lead paint, $50 to $75, said Mike Dove, the city's neighborhood administrator. Then the city has to send out or hire a trained crew to remove any lead paint found. That could run into hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Then the homeowner can have her paint vouchers.

It will cost a lot more -- the city has no good estimate how much -- which means the city's budget will cover fewer houses, and it will take longer for each house to get its coat of paint.

"It's unfortunate that a regulation like this can hold up a program like that," Dove said.

But he said the city needs to make sure the work is done safely.

Though there are tens of thousands of homes in the Tampa Bay area with lead paint, those homes built after 1978 are thought not to have any lead paint. Most houses that Paint Your Heart Out Hernando County works on were built during the 1980s, said organizer Donna Lipidarov, who added that her program will continue because they avoid older houses.

Clearwater has many older homes, but the volunteer group there plans to keep painting.

Pauline Sewell's 76-year-old house in the South Greenwood neighborhood is up for a fresh coat of paint from Paint Your Heart Out Clearwater on March 18.

The group receives no federal money, said Sue Phillips, one of the organizers. Unless the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency follows up with lead regulations for everybody who does renovations (and it may) they can keep painting houses.

"My house was built back in 1924," said Sewell, 82. "It could stand a lot of repairs, but at this time I can't afford it."

Unsafe lead paint removal methods

Dry scraping or sanding

Open flame burning/torching

Sanding or grinding without HEPA filtered exhaust

Pressure washing

Sandblasting without HEPA exhaust

Safe paint removal methods

Wet scraping or sanding

Off-site chemical stripping

Replacing painted boards

Scraping while using a heat gun below 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit

HEPA vacuum sanding

More information about the danger from lead paint is available from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on the Internet at http://www.hud.gov/lea/leadhelp.html, or by phone at (800) 424-LEAD (5323).

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