To those of you who do not know there are several states right now that are working on legislation for certification in regards to radon testing and radon mitigation. The exact list I will not get into right now but as most of you know there are around 16 or 17 states that have a least some form of radon certification at the state level.
I would also go as far as saying that any of us that become involved with (interested in) licensing / certification is usually at the state level that, that is where we invest our time. We may never have all 50 states (certification in all 50 states) but it is my opinion, a goal we are all pushing towards.
Needless to say it has gotten me thinking about the others. Who are the others? Any city, county etc. that has worked on local certification, again, at a local level. In my state, Missouri. There is at present no certification but (I will use this as my example). The city of Columbia Missouri (population of around 110,000) passed a RRNC law back about 7 or 8 years ago.
(Some of this is speculation here - I have not gather exact details on this). But, they passed the ordinance, implement it and the building inspectors etc. have to deal with it along with any local builder etc. So, The question arises, where are we in regards to all of this? Has any body on list serv or AARST national etc. ever reached out to them? For support, to provide technical information, to even say thank you for doing that?
I obviously do not know how many city's, county's etc. have passed bills like this but the question is, does any of us know? How many are out there? It is great for us to work on a state level but my concern is (sorry for the verbiage here) the lack of support from our industry on a local level, where is it? We usually get involved with it at a state level but it may be 10 years before a state passes any certification at a state level, what about until then?
So, (I personally am not good at this) but I have been doing some basic research on this and I believe there is a large number of individuals (counties, city's etc.) that could use our help. I personally would not know exactly how to do this but I believe it would well be worth our effort to gather up a national data base in regards to a complete (national) list of all cities etc. that have some form of local radon ordinance.
If we as a group could start a data base of which cities require RRNC or any other radon related issues I can not but help believe this would be a very good way we could plant seeds (at a local level) in regards to radon education. So, if we had a complete list of all local ordinances that dealt with radon that would be a start.
We could send out a questioner to all AARST members, NRPP members and anyone else we could think of and start gathering a complete list (in all of the unlicensed states) of all radon related ordinances. The goal is (again, blunt statement here) we do not (correct me if I am wrong) have any list of cities etc. that have passed ordinances, again, about radon.
One of the main goals is to provide a support structure on a local level. We could start off with a (I will call it a care package) form letter from maybe AARST national? Maybe some info from a local AARST chapter. Let them know we are here. Part of the goal is to support them but also to keep them apprised of the ever changing, advancing, guidelines.
We would of course have to work up a data base of who is the contact person at the local level? I guess my thoughts are that these folks may not even know we are out there (AARST national etc.). It is pretty important in my opinion that we set up a support structure for everyone on a local level. I guess (correct me if I am wrong) there is no data base in regards to all of the above?
Jumping in at a state level (trying to get certification etc.) is great but we need to support everyone's efforts, especially at a local level. If you want state level certification I think you have to start here. There is no choice. Again, maybe this has been addressed in the past and if it is (does) exist, has it ever been updated?
I just think it would be in our best interest to maybe start a committee / group ? That could start gathering information in regards to this and be prepared to update it at least once a year ? Maybe every 6 months? My main concern is (again) we do not have any data base (please correct me if I am wrong) in regards to any national (local reg.) on radon.
And if we do not support these folks now how can we expect them to support us when we start knocking on the door and saying, hey, support our push for state certification etc. Any thoughts or imput on this matter would be appreciated.
Hi Jim- In Colorado, we do not have a state-wide building code, so every city and/or county must adopt Appendix F at the local level. I have been working on this for 20 years and I keep a list of our cities and counties that have adopted it https://oitco.hylandcloud.com/CDPHERMPop/docpop/docpop.aspx?clienttype=html&docid=3127211 Most of these are successful due to state and local education and outreach to city councils and county commissioners. A while back, I believe Lou Witt (EPA) was keeping a database of these adoptions nationally, but I don't know what ever happened to that list. Chrys
Jim,
In Kansas, we also have a fairly up-to-date list of cities that have adopted some sort of code language. We're lucky to also have a great group of talented professionals at the state radon office whom likely have a comprehensive list as well. While it may not be currently published, I'm willing to bet someone in the AARST office has a national list compiled somewhere.
I would love to see A.F replaced with RRNC at some point, but we'll take what we can get for now.