Knowing the regulation that you must follow is crucial to operating a good program.  Your staff also needs to be familiar with the regulations. 

There are several federal regulations we must adhere to in the weatherization program.  Following is a list of the basic federal regulation you should be familiar with. Part 440 is the core federal regulation that guides our program.  Others listed below pertain to the financial side of the program, purchasing, audits, etc.  DOE adds to Part 440 with changes to the program as warranted.  These changes are done through “Program Guidance Documents” (PON’s).  You can view all of the past PON’s at WapTac’s website at http://www.waptac.com/sp.asp?id=6878

Keep in mind that our Policy and Procedures Manual (PPM) in essence incorporates these regulations as well as updates from DOE’s PON’s.  Downloads of these regulations are available at NYSWDA’s online Director’s Manual

Part 440

(Click Here for Document)

Click Here of 07 DOE Program Notice

U.S. Department of Energy - Weatherization Assistance Program for Low-Income Persons - Title 10, Part 440  

These regulations are promulgated to carry out a program of weatherization assistance for low-income persons established by the Energy Conservation in Existing Buildings Act of 1976 as amended in Title II, Part 2, of the National Energy Conservation Policy Act.   This is DOE’s regulations for the WAP program applicable to all 50 states.

Purpose - This part implements a weatherization assistance program to increase the energy efficiency of dwellings owned or occupied by low-income persons, reduce their total residential expenditures, and improve their health and safety, especially low-income persons who are particularly vulnerable such as the elderly, persons with disabilities, families with children, high residential energy users, and households with high energy burden.

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is an annual codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government.

Part 600

(Click Here for Document)

Title 10 - Code of Financial Assistance Rules - Part 600 (10CFR600) - Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Cooperative Agreements  This regulation is simply referred to as Part 600.

Implements OMB Circular A-110 on behalf of the Department of Energy and establishes uniform administrative requirements for grants and agreements awarded to institutions of higher education, hospitals, non-profit and commercial organizations, including grants and cooperative agreements administered by state, local and Indian Tribal governments.

Purpose - This part implements the Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act, Pub. L. 95-224, as amended by Pub. L. 97-258 (31 U.S.C. 6301-6308),  and establishes uniform policies and procedures for the award and  administration of DOE grants and cooperative agreements. This subpart  (Subpart A) sets forth the policies and procedures applicable to the award and administration of grants and cooperative agreements.

OMB Circular A-87

(Click Here for Document)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-87 - Cost Principles for State, Local, and Indian Tribal Governments

Establishes principles and standards for determining costs for federal awards Roxanned out through grants, cost reimbursement contracts, and other agreements with state and local governments and recognized Indian tribal governments.

Purpose. This Circular establishes principles for determining costs of grants, contracts and other agreements with non-profit organizations. It does not apply to colleges and universities which are covered by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-21, "Cost Principles for Educational Institutions"; State, local, and federally-recognized Indian tribal governments which are covered by OMB Circular A-87, "Cost Principles for State, Local, and Indian Tribal Governments"; or hospitals. The principles are designed to provide that the Federal Government bear its fair share of costs except where restricted or prohibited by law. The principles do not attempt to prescribe the extent of cost sharing or matching on grants, contracts, or other agreements. However, such cost sharing or matching shall not be accomplished through arbitrary limitations on individual cost elements by Federal agencies. Provision for profit or other increment above cost is outside the scope of this Circular.

A-122

(Click Here for Document)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-122 - Cost Principles for Non-Profit Organizations

This Circular is used by all Federal agencies in determining the costs of work performed by non-profit organizations under grants, cooperative agreements, cost reimbursement contracts, and other contracts in which costs are used in pricing, administration, or settlement.

Deals with allowable costs for WAP work.

A-133

(Click Here for Document)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-133 - Audits of States, Local Governments, and Non-Profit Organizations (Single Audit Act)

The Single Audit Act of 1984, as amended in 1996, sets forth standards for obtaining consistency and uniformity among federal agencies for the audit of States, local governments, and non-profit organizations expending federal funds. Non-federal entities that expend $300,000 or more in a year in federal awards must have a single or program-specific audit conducted.

Purpose. This Circular is issued pursuant to the Single Audit Act of 1984, P.L. 98-502, and the Single Audit Act Amendments of 1996, P.L. 104-156. It sets forth standards for obtaining consistency and uniformity among Federal agencies for the audit of States, local governments, and non-profit organizations expending Federal awards.

Davis Bacon Act

(Click Here for Document)

U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration - Davis Bacon Act

This document provided guidance to Regional Administrators and prime sponsors so that provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act could uniformly applied to CETA programs. This document also provided exemptions to Davis-Bacon compliance, including the WAP Program.

OSHA

 (Part 1910 Link)

(Part 1926 Link)

OSHA regulations can be confusing and appear difficult to stay in compliance with.  NYSWDA has determined to make the process of OSHA compliance as painless as possible with two important trainings offered on a regular basis for the network.  There are two sub sections of the OSHA regulations that pertain to our network - PART 1910 Occupational Safety and Health Standards which is the general construction regulations and the subsection of OSHA’s PART 1926 which deals with Lead exposure in the workplace - 1926.62 - Lead.  (more on Part 1926 below)

 Part 1910

As the administrative head of a Weatherization organization, there are a number of OSHA issues that must be addressed.  As an employer, it is your responsibility that employees work in a safe environment.  From the perspective of an administrator, Recordkeeping, Hazardous Communications, and Supervisory Responsibilities are essential topics that you should be familiar with. 

 Directors should familiarize themselves with safety issues confronted by their crews so that safe work practices are employed.  Safety topics recommended for all Weatherization personnel include:

• Personal Protective Equipment
• Electrical safety
• Power tool safety
• Ladder safety
• Fall protection
• Lead
• Respirators
• Hazardous communications

 OSHA expectations are that employers will hold a weekly safety meeting.  These are typically labeled “Tool Box Talks”, and are short 10 minute safety talks, often held in conjunction with staff meetings..  These meetings often address topics being faced during the current or future projects, and can include the above topics, or relevant issues such as driving in snow, etc.

 To facilitate safe work practices, NYSWDA offers an OSHA authorized 10 hour construction safety certificate course.  Your crews will be exposed to the above topics as well as other relevant material for safe work practices on a construction site.  In addition, an OSHA for Administrators course has been developed to educate office staff and Directors on the appropriate record keeping and supervisory responsibilities to comply with OSHA law.

 Probably our biggest area of exposure in the WAP program comes from injury due to falls.  The following two slides are from the OSHA training and give some figures how big a problem falls are.

11 Million
Annual Falls

·         App. 15,000 fatal falls/yr.

·         Fatal falls account for App.  10% of ALL injury deaths

·         1 in 6 Die because of falls to the same level

Regulations dealing with Lead Paint: that pertains to the WAP Program
 

·          Title 10

·          DOE LSW Regs

·          HUD Lead regulations

·          EPA Lead regulations

·          OSHA Lead regulations

·          DHCR Lead regulations

 As you can see the WAP network has many regulations to understand and follow related to “Lead Paint”.  They can be complicated and therefore we highly recommend as a director you attend the one day DOE LSW training put on by NYSWDA several times each year.  Your staff and your sub-contractors are required to take this training but as directors you need to attend to get a thorough understanding of the regulations involved.

Lead Paint poisoning in children and construction workers became a major issue in the 1990’s and led to regulations from many sources that WAP Directors need to be aware of.  In New York state over 10,000 children a year are lead poisoned and according to NIOSH studies children of construction workers are 4 times as likely to have lead problems over children in the general public.  From the chart below you can see that we are dealing with the population and housing stock that has the major Lead Issues.

This manual will only cover the lead regulations in brief. 

We will cover the regulations pertaining to Lead one by one . 

Title 10

Title X (The Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992) was passed by congress to end Lead Poising in children by 2010 and this law went into full effect in 1999.  In a nutshell this law required all federal agencies to form a task force to pass regulations to meet the goal of this law. 

The “Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992” is also known as Title X.

•          Title X required various government agencies to enact regulations to reduce the amount of lead exposure and therefore lead poisoning.

•          Title X marked a new direction in lead-based paint legislation.

DOE

DOE put its regulations to satisfy Title 10 into their Annual Grant Guidance, Program Notice 02-6

1.       Doe required states to identify and implement "lead-based paint safe work practices," which now are referred to as "Lead-Safe Weatherization" (LSW).

2.       Agencies must have Pollution Occurrence Insurance (POI)

3.       All agencies personnel and their sub-contractors must have Lead Safe Work (LSW) training

HUD

HUD's Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control Rule, 24 CFR35, (Part 35) - "Lead-Based Paint - Poisoning Prevention in Certain Residential Structures" went into effect September 15, 2000, although some of the provisions (the prohibited paint removal techniques) had been in effect since November 1999 

HUD regulations do not usually pertain to Weatherization work unless all four of the following conditions are true:

• The dwelling has not been certified to be lead-based paint free,
• The amount of disturbed lead-based painted surfaces exceeds two square feet per room of interior surfaces or twenty square feet of exterior surface or 10% of a small component, (e.g., window)
• It is pre-1978 housing, and
• And either it is HUD-assisted housing (including HUD Section 8 vouchered housing), and/or HUD funds are being used to weatherize, rehabilitate, or repair the home.

EPA

Only section 406 of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Act of 1992, the Hazard Notification Rule, applies to Weatherization work

This requires Weatherization providers to give a copy of the EPA booklet "Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home" (publication number: EPA 747-k-94-001) prior to the start of work.

The rule also includes record keeping requirements.

Not only do we need to give all clients this booklet and have a signed form in the file that they received this book but also this information should be a key part of our client education.  More in our client ed section of this manual.

OSHA

1926.62(a) "Scope". This section applies to all construction work where an employee may be occupationally exposed to lead.

With out NYSWDA’s NID your workers would be required by OSHA to suit up and where a respiratory when performing weatherization on older homes

 

As you can from the opening of OSHA’s 1926.62 regulations that we fall under this regulation since we have the potential to expose our employees to Lead Dust.

Following is a outline of OSHA’s regulation on lead we must comply with:

• 1926.62(d)(2)(v)(E) Biological monitoring in accordance with paragraph (j)(1)(i) of this section, to consist of blood sampling and analysis for lead and zinc protoporphyrin level 
  (This section means we should be doing blood testing on our employees each year)
• 1926.62(d)(2)(v)(F) Training as required under paragraph (l)(1)(i) of this section regarding 29 CFR
  (This section of the regulation is satisfied by NYSWDA’s One Day DOE Lead LSW Training.
• 1926.62(c)(1) The employer shall assure that no employee is exposed to lead at concentrations greater than fifty micrograms per cubic meter of air (50 ug/m(3)) averaged over an 8-hour period. 
  (This section requires contractors to perform air monitoring to ensure employees are not exposed to lead dust above 50 ug/m(3).  NYSWDA performs the air monitoring each year for our OSHA Negative Initial Determination (NID) which relieves you from doing your own monitoring.  Remember though our NID only covers the 13 measures we do air monitoring on and does not cover other construction where lead dust may be created.  Refer to the section of this manual on our NID for more details.

DHCR

The following is a brief list of DHCR’s regulations regarding Lead Paint.  (see the PPM for more details).  You will notice that many of DHCR’s policies mimic DOE’s regulations.

 

• The DHCR requirement that each subgrantee employ at least one EPA Certified Lead Abatement Supervisor has been changed. 

·USDOE requires that all work performed on homes built before 1978 be completed using Lead Safe Work Practices (LSW) unless the building surfaces have been certified as lead free.

• USDOE requires that all subgrantees and their subcontractors carry Pollution Occurrence Insurance

·USDOE requires that all subgrantee/subcontractor personnel who will come in contact with lead paint attend a USDOE approved One Day lead Safe Work Practices training session.

• NY City agencies must adhere to New York City’s Lead Laws, see PPM for more details

·Subgrantees working outside of New York City must inform owners of rental housing that if weatherization measures are installed in a multiple dwelling unit containing three or more apartments built before 1960 in which a child under age seven resides and which has not been certified as lead-free, then it is presumed that the paint in the unit is lead based paint, and the owner must obtain a lead clearance test upon completion of the weatherization that the work area is lead safe.  (See your PPM for more details)