15.3 Permanent Covering vs Landscaping

Pavement is abatement; mulch is not

Quick Answer: Permanently covered soil means soil separated from human contact by a barrier of solid, relatively impermeable materials, such as pavement or concrete. Grass, mulch, and other landscaping materials are not considered permanent covering (40 CFR 745.223). If soil abatement is conducted and the soil is not removed, the soil shall be permanently covered as so defined (745.227(e)(7)(ii)). Interim controls — mulch, grass, gravel, land-use controls — may reduce exposure temporarily but are not soil abatement. After exterior paint abatement, paint chips on the dripline or next to the foundation must be removed from the site and properly disposed (745.227(e)(8)(v)(C)). That visual is cleanup, not soil abatement, but chips left in play-area soil create or continue a soil-lead hazard.

Section 15.2 is the shovel. This section is the cover — and the exam's favorite false cover. Three inches of dyed mulch over 1,400 ppm play-area dirt is landscaping. A poured concrete pad, or asphalt that actually seals the same dirt from contact, is permanent covering. The definition is contact, not curb appeal.

Chapter 5 already used this line: planting grass over 1,400 ppm play-area soil is not soil abatement. Here you apply it in the field, including monitoring after the pour and child contact on play surfaces.

What 745.223 will accept as a barrier

The barrier must be solid and relatively impermeable, and it must separate soil from human contact. EPA's examples are pavement or concrete. The sentence that follows is the trap: grass, mulch, and other landscaping materials are not considered permanent covering.

HUD Chapter 12 paving notes you should still respect as documented methodology: use high-quality concrete or asphalt; observe traffic load and thermal expansion; obtain permits; keep cultivation to a minimum before the pour. Hard surfaces are not appropriate in play areas where falls are possible from slides or climbing equipment — the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) wants impact-attenuating surfacing under play equipment. That CPSC point does not convert rubber mulch into EPA permanent covering. If the hazard is the dirt under a swing set and you cannot pave a fall zone, the (e)(7) path is usually removal and replacement (15.2), not a 6-inch wood-chip bed labeled “abatement.”

Worked example — driveway vs sandbox. Rest-of-yard bare soil along a parking strip averages 1,400 ppm. The owner paves that strip with specified asphalt. Soil abatement by permanent covering, if the contract is designed as permanent elimination. The same owner's play-area sandbox at 900 ppm cannot be “abated” with playground mulch. Remove and replace, or install a true pavement/concrete barrier in a location that is still a safe play surface — which often means moving play off that dirt and paving or removing it, not dumping chips in the box.

Interim controls: useful, temporary, not this credential's soil method

Interim controls (745.223) are measures designed to temporarily reduce exposure: specialized cleaning, repairs, painting, temporary containment, ongoing monitoring, resident education — and, for soil, covers that are not permanent plus land-use controls (keep children off a bare patch).

HUD Guidelines Chapter 11 and HUD's Lead Safe Housing Rule (24 CFR 35.1330) describe impermanent soil covers — gravel, bark, sod, artificial turf — and land-use controls. 24 CFR 35.1330: loose bark or gravel not less than 6 inches deep; covering material ≤ 400 µg/g lead; do not use grass or sod in heavily traveled areas. HUD Guidelines Chapter 11 often specifies bark or gravel 6 to 12 inches and cleaner imported cover (Guidelines text has used 200 µg/g for new cover material). Those inches are interim-control specifications. They are not 745.223 permanent covering. Six inches of gravel over 2,000 ppm dripline soil can be a responsible interim job. It is not soil abatement under (e)(7)(ii).

If the written contract is certified abatement, do not mix columns: an EPA abatement notice plus mulch as the soil method is a mismatched file (Chapter 5 and Chapter 7). If the owner bought interim soil controls, you are not finishing Subpart L soil abatement with that mulch, and you should not say you are.

Monitoring the cover — play-area child contact

A concrete pad that later cracks, heaves, or loses a section is no longer separating soil from contact. 745.227(e)(10)(vi) already requires the abatement report to include any suggested monitoring of encapsulants or enclosures; a soil pavement is the same idea even though 745.223 uses “covering” instead of “enclosure.” Tell the owner, in the report, to inspect the cover for:

• Cracks wide enough that soil or dust pumps through
• Edges that ravel back to bare dripline
• Missing pavers, potholes, or settlement basins that become puddles of contaminated mud
• Play equipment footings that punch through asphalt

Children under 6 get soil-lead into their mouths from hands, toys, and sitting in dirt. A play-area cover that looks intact from the curb but has a worn corner by the back steps is the exposure pathway. Monitoring is not optional color in the pamphlet. It is how a 20-year HUD-style abatement remains a barrier. Interim grass and mulch need even more monitoring — they fail by design when traffic, shade, or drought returns bare soil — which is why they are not (e)(7).

Worked example — cracked patio. A 2020 concrete patio was the soil abatement over a 1,500 ppm rest-of-yard strip. In 2026 a settlement crack exposes a 2-inch ribbon of dirt at child height next to the stoop. That ribbon is bare soil again. It needs repair of the permanent cover, or a new (h)(4) look if the use is now play. Ignoring it because “we paved once” is how a completed abatement becomes a new hazard.

Exterior dust, dripline chips, and the line between cleanup and soil work

Exterior dust on walks, patios, and parking pads tracks inside on shoes and pets. HUD Chapter 12: control the sources (deteriorating exterior LBP, bare contaminated soil, uncontained paint work) and remove leaded dust from paved surfaces; without source control, cleaned pavement recontaminates. Chapter 11 already required ground sheeting so today's paint job does not become tomorrow's soil job. This chapter's remainder is what happens after the paint work, at the dripline.

745.227(e)(8)(v)(C) — following exterior paint abatement, a visible inspection:

• All horizontal surfaces in the outdoor living area closest to the abated surface shall be found cleaned of visible dust and debris.
• Inspect for paint chips on the dripline or next to the foundation below any exterior surface abated.
• If chips are present, they must be removed from the site and properly disposed of under applicable federal, state, and local requirements.

That is post-abatement visual cleanup, performed as part of inspector/risk-assessor post-abatement procedures, after the supervisor's crew has actually picked the chips. It is not soil removal under (e)(7), and it is not a substitute for reading the RA's 400 / 1,200 table. It is how you keep chips from becoming play-area bare-soil contamination. A sandbox that was 350 ppm on the RA and then received a week of uncontained scrape-chips is no longer the yard the RA described.

Worked example — chips in the drip strip. South wall wet-scrape, play-area dirt starts 3 feet from the foundation. After folding the poly, chips sit in the drip strip. The supervisor has the crew remove and dispose of those chips ((e)(8)(v)(C)), HEPA/wet-clean the closest outdoor horizontals, and not rake chips into the sandbox “to tidy the bed.” If the RA already had a play-area soil-lead hazard, chip pickup does not finish soil abatement — you still remove/replace or permanently cover that play dirt (15.2 / this section).

Official sources: 40 CFR 745.223 (permanently covered soil; interim controls); 40 CFR 745.227(e)(7)(ii), (e)(8)(v)(C), (e)(10)(vi); HUD Guidelines Chapters 11 (soil interim controls) and 12 (paving); 24 CFR 35.1330 (HUD LSHR impermanent soil covers, bark/gravel ≥ 6 inches — interim, not EPA permanent covering).