9.2 Updated, Canceled, EBL, and Emergency Notifications

Updates, cancellations, EBL, and emergency clocks

Quick Answer: If you will start earlier than noticed, EPA must receive an updated notice at least 5 business days before the new start date. If you will start later, the update must be received on or before the start date you already gave EPA. A location change needs an update at least 5 business days prior to the start date provided. Cancellations and significant changes, including square footage or acreage changing by more than 20%, must be received on or before the original start date, or if work has already begun, within 24 hours of the change. EBL and emergency-order jobs use an abbreviated clock — no later than the start date — and must attach the EBL determination or emergency order. You may not start on a date or at an address other than the one on file.

Section 9.1 was the original five-day filing. This section is every time the job moves after that filing. 745.227(e)(4)(viii) is the operational sentence: activities shall not begin on a date, or at a location, other than that specified in the original or updated notification.

Early start is a new five-day clock; late start is a same-day-or-sooner update

745.227(e)(4)(iii) (except EBL/emergency) splits the calendar into two opposite rules:

Early start — (iii)(A). The owner clears the unit two days sooner and asks you to "just come in." You already noticed a Monday start. Showing up Friday is a new start date. EPA must receive the updated notice at least 5 business days before that Friday. The original Monday filing does not buy you a shorter clock because you are moving earlier. If you cannot get a five-business-day update in before the new date, you do not start early. You wait for the date on file, or you wait for a legal update.

Worked example — early start. Original notice: start Monday, March 16. Crew and unit are ready Wednesday, March 11. Wednesday the 11th is prior to the date provided. You need an updated notice received at least 5 business days before March 11 — counting back (Tue 10, Mon 9, Fri 6, Thu 5, Wed 4), EPA needed the update by Wednesday, March 4. Calling EPA on March 10 is too late to legalize a March 11 start. Stay with March 16 or pick a new date that still has 5 business days of received notice.

Late start — (iii)(B). Rain, a missing part, or a delayed relocation can push the job after the noticed start. That update must be received on or before the start date you already gave EPA. If you noticed Monday and you now think Wednesday, EPA must have the update Monday at the latest. If you remember on Tuesday that you never started Monday, you have already passed the original start date without either starting or updating. Late start is not a five-day courtesy in the other direction. It is a deadline tied to the old date.

Worked example — late start. Original start Monday, March 16. Occupants cannot move until Thursday, March 19. File the updated notice so EPA receives it on or before Monday, March 16. Filing Wednesday the 18th, two days after the date you put on the original notice, fails (iii)(B).

Location is as locked as the date

745.227(e)(4)(iv) (except EBL/emergency): updated notification for any change in location must be provided at least 5 business days prior to the start date provided to EPA. Combined with (viii), you shall not begin at a location other than the one specified.

Location includes the property address and apartment or unit number(s) from (vi)(G). The building next door is a different location. Unit 4 is a different location from Unit 2 in the same hallway. A soil job that moves from the play area at 12 Oak to the play area at 14 Oak is a location change. The five-business-day location clock runs to the start date already provided, not to a start date you invent on the truck.

Worked example — next-door unit. You noticed 14 Oak Street, Unit 2, start Monday. Sunday night the owner says Unit 2's tenant will not leave, but Unit 4 is empty — "same building, same paint, just start there." Unit 4 is not the location on the notice. You need an updated notice received at least 5 business days prior to the start date provided. You cannot start Unit 4 on Monday. You also cannot "start" Unit 2 on paper while working Unit 4. (viii) forbids beginning at a location other than specified.

Cancellations, more than 20% quantity, and the 24-hour in-progress rule

745.227(e)(4)(v) is the catch-all for cancellations and other significant changes, "including, but not limited to, when the square footage or acreage to be abated changes by more than 20%." The update must be received on or before the start date provided to EPA, or if work has already begun, within 24 hours of the change.

More than 20% is a strict comparison. A change of exactly 20% is not "more than 20%." A change of 20.1% is.

Worked example — quantity math. Original notice: 1,000 ft². Owner adds a porch and two more rooms totaling 1,250 ft². Increase is 250 / 1,000 = 25%, which is more than 20%. If the crew has not started, EPA must receive the update on or before the noticed start date. If the crew is already on site when the extra rooms are added to the scope, the firm has 24 hours from that change.

Worked example — 15% is not the 20% trigger. Original 800 ft², revised 920 ft². That is 15%. Paragraph (v) does not fire on the 20% clause. It can still fire if the change is otherwise significant — for example, adding a child-occupied facility wing, switching from interior paint removal to soil abatement, or dropping encapsulation for component replacement. "Including, but not limited to" means 20% is an example, not the only significant change.

Worked example — 24-hour clock. Work began Monday on the noticed 1,000 ft². Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. the owner walks the crew into an unfinished attic and adds 300 ft² (30%). The updated notice must be received by EPA within 24 hours — by Wednesday 10:00 a.m. Waiting until Friday's weekly paperwork fails. Stopping work does not erase the 24-hour duty if the scope actually changed; if you refuse the extra attic and the scope stays 1,000 ft², there is no quantity change to report.

Cancellations are easy to forget because nobody is going to the site. The regulation still wants the update. A noticed job that never happens, with no cancellation, leaves EPA expecting abatement at that address.

EBL and emergency abatement orders — abbreviated notice, not no notice

745.227(e)(4)(ii) is the only built-in short clock:

Notification for abatement "required in response to an elevated blood lead level (EBL) determination, or Federal, State, Tribal, or local emergency abatement order should be received by EPA as early as possible before, but must be received no later than, the start date" of the activities. "Documentation showing evidence of an EBL determination or a copy of the Federal/State/Tribal/local emergency abatement order must be included in the notification to take advantage of this abbreviated notification period."

If the start date and/or location later change on an EBL/emergency job, the updated notification "must be received by EPA on or before the start date provided to EPA." The ordinary early-start 5-day rule and the ordinary location 5-day rule do not apply to this paragraph — (iii) and (iv) both say except as provided in (e)(4)(ii). You still cannot start at a silent address. You still must notify no later than the start.

EPA's EBL, not CDC's. 745.223 defines elevated blood lead level (EBL) as a confirmed whole-blood lead of 20 µg/dL on a single venous test, or 15–19 µg/dL in two consecutive tests taken 3 to 4 months apart. Chapter 4 already separated that number from CDC's childhood blood lead reference value of 3.5 µg/dL. A pediatric letter that a child is "above CDC's reference value" at 6 µg/dL is not an EBL determination under 745.223 and does not unlock (e)(4)(ii) unless you also have a qualifying emergency abatement order. Attach the documentation. A verbal "the health department wants this done tomorrow" without the order or the EBL paper is a five-business-day job.

Worked example — real EBL, missing attachment. A 4-year-old has a confirmed venous BLL of 22 µg/dL. The health department issues an emergency abatement order dated today. The firm files an electronic notice the same afternoon, start date tomorrow, but forgets to include the EBL documentation or a copy of the order. (e)(4)(ii) lets you use the abbreviated period only if that documentation is included. Without it, you are back on the ordinary 5-business-day original-notice rule and you shall not begin tomorrow.

Worked example — CDC number, no order. Same child, venous 8 µg/dL, no emergency order. Public-health follow-up is indicated. Abbreviated EPA notice is not. Original notice, 5 business days, full contents.

What you cannot do

• Start before EPA has a received original (or qualifying EBL/emergency) notice.
• Start on a different date than the original or updated notice.
• Start at a different address or unit than specified.
• Treat a late start as if it had the same 5-day new-clock as an early start.
• Skip the 24-hour update once work is underway and quantity moves more than 20% (or another significant change hits).
• Use CDC 3.5 µg/dL as the EBL trigger.

In an authorized State, that State's update and emergency rules control if they differ. Check the jurisdiction; do not assume EPA's 24-hour in-progress window is the only clock that can exist.

Official source: 40 CFR 745.227(e)(4)(ii)–(ix).