ICYMI: New EPA Guidance Leaves Atlanta’s Westside Residents More Vulnerable to Toxic Lead Exposure
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Atlanta, GA – Last week, President Trump’s EPA released updated guidance for cleaning up lead contamination at residential sites via Superfund. Under this new guidance, homes need three times as much lead before Trump’s EPA will prioritize cleanup (600ppm vs 200ppm). This puts residents who live in or near Atlanta’s Westside lead cleanup—the largest Superfund cleanup of lead at residential sites—at elevated risk of lead contamination as they wait for government action.
In the same directive, EPA also weakened the target children’s blood level used to prioritize Superfund cleanups. The guidance directs EPA’s Superfund program to use a target blood lead level of 5 micrograms per deciliter (ug/dL) to develop Preliminary Remediation Goals (PRGs). This is higher than the 3.5 micrograms per deciliter (ug/dL) reference value utilized by the CDC.
“Donald Trump couldn’t make his priorities any clearer,” said Mark McLaurin, Georgia Director at Climate Power. “Time after time, he sides with polluters over Georgians. Trump is slashing investments in clean energy, decimating disaster relief, and gutting laws that protect clean water and clean air and the health of our communities. Our state is losing jobs and seeing our energy bills skyrocket as we face elevated risk of lead poisoning—all so billionaires can get yet another tax cut. The Environmental Protection Agency should do what it was set up to do and protect people, not polluters.”
Recent cuts & rollbacks under the Trump EPA include:
- In April 2025, Zeldin canceled over $22 billion in environmental justice grants, including a $20 million grant for wastewater improvements, a resilience hub and health clinic, and energy efficiency upgrades to homes in Thomasville.
- Zeldin’s EPA pushed to roll back protections on four types of PFAS that contaminate our water supplies, sought to weaken PFAS evaluations in order to preempt state-level bans on the toxic chemicals, and withdrew a rule requiring PFAS manufacturers to monitor and reduce their pollution.
- Zeldin’s EPA granted nearly 70 two-year exemptions to power plants from requirements they reduce the release of toxic chemicals like mercury, arsenic, and benzene, including Georgia Power’s Plant Bowen and Plant Scherer.
- Zeldin’s EPA pushed to weaken protections for methane pollution, which it argued were “throttling the oil and gas industry.” Methane pollution is responsible for over 1 million premature deaths annually, and the protections were expected to yield up to $98 billion in climate and health benefits from 2024 to 2038.
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