LITTLE ROCK — In response to questions raised by industry members over changes to the state’s asbestos abatement regulation, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality will hold a meeting Tuesday to take suggestions for more revisions.
“We’re going to start with a clean slate,” said Mike Bates, chief of the department’s air division. “We want to listen to all stakeholders.”
Bates said the department has been working on updating the Arkansas Asbestos Abatement Regulation, or Regulation 21, for about three years. He said the rule hasn’t been revised since 1997.
Since then, he said the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, the board that governs the department, “has adopted some standardized formatting requirements, so we needed to put Regulation 21 in the same format as the other regulations.”
That meant rearranging the regulation to make it “easier to follow and to understand” and making other changes such as reducing fees, requiring air monitoring by an independent party and requiring a photo from anyone seeking certification.
Those changes were adopted during the commission’s Sept. 23 meeting, but industry members at the meeting had questions about other parts of the regulation.
The commission could not accept comment on concerns that were not part of the original proposal so it asked the department to open the entire regulation for comment.
One concern raised during the commission meeting was that the definition for contractors and consultants are identical when the two groups provide different services.
Changing the definition requires action from the Legislature, Bates said.
“We couldn’t move forward because we can’t make a change in the regulation that would conflict with state law and state law defines those terms,” he said.
Cecillea Pond-Mayo, a spokesman for the department, said that because studies have linked asbestos fibers to serious health problems, the department has been regulating asbestos removal across the state since 1990.
“Regulation 21 was developed to regulate work practices during demolitions and renovations of facilities, as well as to license asbestos supervisors and workers,” she said.
Asbestos may be found in insulation, flooring, ceiling sections or siding. Danger exists when those materials are damaged or improperly removed, the department reports.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that when the fibers are inhaled into the lungs, they can cause asbestosis — a chronic irritation of the lungs that can cause scarring — and two types of lung cancer.
Bates said he hopes to have a broad group represented at the meeting Tuesday.
“Typically our feedback is from training providers, consultants and contractors that are licensed for asbestos removal,” he said, noting that anyone from real estate developers to engineers and facilities managers could be affected by the regulation changes.
“For example, you could own a building that is not subject to Regulation 21 now, but if that building should need renovations, it could become subject to the regulation,” he said. “So there’s not a static list of stakeholders.”
Bates said he expects more meetings to follow but noted that none have been scheduled. He had no timeline for when proposed changes could go before the commission for a vote.
“This is probably going to be a fairly long process,” he said.
The meeting will be held in the commission meeting room on the first floor of the Department of Environmental Quality headquarters, 5301 Northshore Drive in North Little Rock.
Those who plan to attend the meeting are encouraged to bring written comments expressing their specific concerns on the regulation, Pond-Mayo said.
A copy of the recent changes and the entire regulation can be found at www. adeq.state.ar.us.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 10/24/2011