ForConstructionPros.com

Effective January 1, 2005, striping contractors in a handful of New England and Mid-Atlantic states will be unable to buy or use solvent paints containing more than 150 grams per liter of volatile organic compounds (VOC), according to Tom Frankiewicz, senior program manager for the Ozone Transport Commission (OTC).

The restriction, based on a regulation that took effect in California in 2003, is the result of a reclassification of paint sold in 5-gallon containers that had been exempt from a 1998 federal regulation limiting VOCs for road marking paint to 150 g/l.

The states that already have the solvent ban in place are Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. Another five states (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Virginia) have partial bans on the material or are developing plans to be effective January 1, 2006. Vermont and Connecticut are still in the early stages of implementing any regulations.

All 12 states and the District of Columbia are members of the OTC, a multi-state organization created under the Clean Air Act to advise the EPA on possible regional solutions to help solve ground-level ozone problems in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

"The OTC regulation sets specific VOC limits for numerous categories of paint as defined by their use," Frankiewicz says. "The solvents used in this paint are one of the main ingredients in smog and the regulation sets specific limits for all types of coating categories."