NAHB President Meets With EPA Administrator to Seek Balance on Regulatory Issues
In a meeting last week with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Leavitt, NAHB President Bobby Rayburn discussed collaborative efforts that the agency and the nation’s home builders could jointly pursue to advance housing opportunities and economic growth while protecting the environment.
At the top of the agenda were effluent limitation guidelines to limit the amount of pollutants in storm water discharges from construction sites. The EPA is under court order to announce its final decisions on this issue by the end of this month, and NAHB has been working with the agency to ensure that the regulations are not unnecessarily burdensome to residential development.
Rayburn urged the Administration to make no changes to its existing storm water regulations.
Citing the uncertainty that landowners face in trying to determine what lands may or may not be subject to wetlands regulations, Rayburn expressed extreme disappointment over the EPA's decision in December not to revise regulations to clarify this issue.
On the issue of brownfields, Rayburn received assurances from the administrator that he will look into the the agency’s land revitalization programs and how they can provide adequate liability protection for developers who put brownfield properties back into productive use.