http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/23/AR2005052301644.html
Correction to This Article
A May 24 article on oil-based paints incorrectly described the mission
of the Ozone Transport Commission. The OTC was created by the Clean
Air Act to help eastern states develop regulations that would reduce
ground-level ozone pollution.
Supply of Oil-Based Paint Thins as New Rule Takes Effect
Sale Restrictions Aim to Curb Ozone Pollution
By Margaret Webb Pressler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 24, 2005; A01
Carlos Diez felt a little extreme when he stockpiled 1,000 gallons of
oil-based house paint last November. But with his stash of the
precious glossy dwindling, he's going a bit crazy again, stopping at
any store he thinks might have some cans squirreled away.
"I feel like an addict. I went to Strosniders last week in Bethesda.
They had about 40 gallons. I bought all 40 gallons," he said. "I've
been talking to everyone. I say, 'You have paint? What color?' If it's
a color I think I can use, I buy it."
When his stockpile is gone, he said, "I don't know what I'm gonna do."
What he'll probably do is switch to latex paint, as so many other
painters in the area have done because of a new, but largely
unpublicized, regulation restricting the sale of oil-based, or alkyd,
paint in the mid-Atlantic region. It's a measure aimed at reducing
ground-level ozone pollution, but it's one that many consumers and
painters were unaware of until oil paint just started vanishing.
"I will have to say that 75 percent of them don't have a clue," about
the new rule, said Edgardo Lopez, assistant manager of the Northern
Virginia paint store Alexandria Paint Co. "Twenty-five percent have
heard a little bit but thought it was a myth."
Similar rules have been in effect for a while in California, and
restrictive oil-paint laws are being crafted in many northern states.
But the mid-Atlantic region has not made as much progress reducing
overall pollution as New England has, so the paint restrictions kicked
in first in this area. Since Jan. 1, stores in the District, Northern
Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York have not been
able to order most of the oil-based paints commonly used in household
and commercial applications.
Paint stores are allowed to sell the alkyds they had on the shelves
when the rule took effect, and some stores piled up their stockrooms
in anticipation of the change. But those reserves are slowly
depleting, just as painting season arrives.
That has created a burgeoning market for imports -- from southern
Virginia, where the restrictions are not in place because the
pollution there is not as bad. At the Virginia Paint Co. Benjamin
Moore store in Fredericksburg, there has been a spike in oil paint
sales.
"It's been growing as they sell out of inventory in Northern
Virginia," said Ted Arthur, outside sales representative for the
store. "We're starting to see that influx of customers here to get
that oil-based product, definitely."
Not all painters are wedded to oil-based paint, as it smells, it's
harder to clean up and it dries so hard that it can crack rather than
breathe with the typical expansion and contraction that weather can
cause. There have also been great strides in the quality of
water-soluble latex paint in recent years, in part because
manufacturers have known for at least a decade that this regulation
was coming. Oil paint accounted for 16.5 percent of the market in
2003, according to the Commerce Department, down from 18 percent in
1997.
Because many painters now use latex, especially for exterior jobs,
little information about this change was passed on to painters and
consumers.
"This was supposed to be relatively seamless for them," said
Christopher Recchia, executive director of the Ozone Transport
Commission, an organization created under the Clean Air Act and
charged with helping Eastern states develop regulations to prevent
further diminishing of the ozone. "For the most part, you can go and
buy these products that not only work as well as the other products,
but they are environmentally safer."
The problem with oil paints is that as they dry or sit out in the
open, they give off volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, that not only
make the paint smell but interact with sun and heat to create ozone
pollution. Recchia said alkyds create 170,000 tons of emissions a day
in the so-called Ozone Transport Region. "It's one of the largest
causes of VOC emissions, and it's comparable to some of the industrial
plant sources," he said.
The rules do not eliminate VOCs but set such low limits that most
products had to be reformulated into latex versions. And a few
industrial-use paints, such as those for metal or roofs, were allowed
to stay on the market. But the interior versions most popular with
painters are going away. For high-end painters, oil has long been the
covering of choice for wood trim and certain other applications.
"We're just not going to be able to do as nice a looking job as
previously," said painter Mitchell Fagan, whose jobs include faux
painting styles that rely on some of the oils taken off the market.
"Once I've used what I've stockpiled, we won't be able to achieve
certain looks."
Diez almost waxes poetic about the benefits of oil paint.
"With oil, you walk into the house, it's such a beautiful thing, it's
hard to describe," he said. "Manufacturers claim what they have on the
market is just as good as oil. It's not. It's nowhere near."
Other painters say the new products are just as good once you get to
know them. But everyone agrees there's simply less to choose from now.
"Probably of the 15 to 20 [products] that were available before, maybe
five or six came out to replace them," said Bryan Holland, manager of
the Monarch Paint and Wallcovering Co. store on Connecticut Avenue in
the District.
Some manufacturers have not done this reengineering willingly.
Sherwin-Williams Co., the nation's largest paint maker, filed a
lawsuit in Pennsylvania fighting the new laws, which it later dropped,
but it still has a suit pending in New York. The company wants an
exemption or extension for products it hasn't been able to
reformulate, such as the oil-based wood stains sold under the Minwax
brand.
"Oil-based stains are in effect being eliminated. Technology is not
available to replace those," said Bill Rafie, director of marketing
for Sherwin-Williams's commercial segment.
For a while, at least, some painters are looking for ways to beat the
system. Quart-size containers have not been eliminated because they
are such a small market that they don't pose much of an environmental
threat. Some stores report that customers are buying -- at great cost
-- four quarts to get a gallon. Others are stockpiling. And still
others are getting behind the wheel.
Technically, road-tripping outside the Ozone Transport Region to get
your paint fix is illegal, but there's not much enforcement, Recchia
said.
Still, some painters don't want to take the risk, so they're just
throwing in the towel and using whatever they can buy in the
Washington area.
"I've been told the first person who gets caught doing this will wish
they were never born," said Terry McEnaney, owner of Just Right
Painting Co. in Alexandria. "So I figured I don't want to go through
that."
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
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