# EPA RRP moratorium in severe storm damage areas?



## larryb (Jul 22, 2010)

After an F1 came through North Minneapolis last Sunday damaging a few hundred homes of which the majority are pre 78' I decided to check the EPA site looking for rules regarding storm damage repairs. As far as I could tell, anyone (including contractors) involved in cleanup work is exempt from the RRP rules. However, regarding repairs, it appears that all of the regular rules apply. 

In that situation where a tornado has distributed lead dust everywhere I imagined for a minute in my cartoon bubble, some hard nosed EPA inspector requiring the entire part of the city that was damaged to be covered in plastic. 

Being that RRP will apply to all repair work, I considered the additional (and unnecessary, IMO) time, trouble and expense that would be involved in getting all of those HO's properties back to normal. I arrived at the same conclusion that I believe most others would arrive at. The solution, exempt the damaged properties and the contractors working on them from the rules. Not doing so would only result in another disaster on top of the one that already happened.

I called several state and fed reps and proposed that a moratorium be placed on the rules so the work can get started and completed in a timely manner. Thus far I have only heard back from Congressman John Kline's office. I talked to his rep this am who agreed that my proposal made sense and would bring the issue up with Kline.

Obviously, the same moratorium would make sense in other areas of the country devastated by record breaking storms this spring.

I asked Kline's rep to keep me informed. When I hear back from him and/or others re: my proposed moratorium, I will post the results here.


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