ATLANTA, Georgia, March 11, 2025 (ENS) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun cleanup of Lindsay Street Park in the English Avenue neighborhood of northwest Atlanta, now closed due to lead contamination. The cleanup at this Atlanta park is part of the EPA’s long-term work on the Westside Lead Superfund Site.
The soil in many residential and some non-residential properties on the site is contaminated with lead from smelting waste left by metal foundries that once operated in the area.
Lindsay Street Park opened in 2015 as the English Avenue community’s first public park. Spread over six once-blighted lots, the park was built with support from many community members, foundations, corporations and organizations.
But in 2018, researchers discovered lead contamination in the English Avenue community. In 2022 during the Biden administration, EPA added the Westside Lead Site to the National Priority List of sites requiring long-term cleanup, known as the Superfund List.
The Conservation Fund based in Arlington, Virginia, a nonprofit that has protected millions of acres of land across all 50 states, has been working with the community to restore the Lindsay Street Park to environmental health.
“The English Avenue and Vine City neighborhoods lie in the shadow of downtown Atlanta, less than a mile from the Atlanta Falcons’ new Mercedes Benz stadium. Yet these streets are not the lifeline to Atlanta; they are plagued with some of the highest rates of crime, unemployment and foreclosure in the city. In addition, these neighborhoods have fewer acres of planned green space than anywhere else in the city,” the Conservation Fund explains on its website.
Atlanta Residents Drink from Polluted Creek
These Atlanta neighborhoods were built in the headwaters of Proctor Creek and its tributaries. But today, due to poor stormwater planning in the past and impacts from development, the Proctor Creek watershed is contaminated by high bacteria levels, illegal dumping, pollution, and erosion.
During heavy storm events, the community is inundated with contaminated overflows from the combined stormwater and sewer system. The pollutants from the Proctor Creek Watershed impact the local streams, and then flow directly into the Chattahoochee River, which supplies 70 percent of metro Atlanta’s drinking water.
In 2010, Park Pride, a local citywide nonprofit focused on parks and greenspace visioning, worked with the community to create a broad plan for the neighborhoods using natural greenspaces as a way to recreate the historical streambeds that were long ago buried under development. This would allow the stormwater to more slowly absorb and filter into soils, instead of overwhelming the sewer system.
Together with Park Pride, and other partners, the Conservation Fund is now working to implement this comprehensive acquisition and restoration plan. Lindsay Street Park is the first of many projects that will create lasting change in these neighborhoods.
Each year, Park Pride hosts the Parks & Greenspace Conference, the largest parks conference in the Southeast, featuring thought leaders from Atlanta and across the nation. Through education and inspiration, the conference focuses on best practices for companies and individuals who are united by a common desire to improve parks and strengthen communities. This year’s sold-out conference is set for March 24, 2025 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
Lindsay Street Park Gets a Fresh Start
For the next three months, EPA will excavate up to two feet of lead-contaminated soil, move the tainted soil to an approved waste disposal site, replace the contaminated soil with clean fill and topsoil.
The cleanup includes a tree removal and replacement plan.
Then the City of Atlanta will replace the park’s playground equipment before the park reopens.
Since 2018, EPA has overseen residential soil sampling in a section of English Avenue and Vine City and since March 3, 2025, residents have given EPA permission to sample 1,674 properties in the study area. Of those sampled, 606 require cleanup. Sampling is ongoing and additional properties may require cleaning.
This Superfund site has been selected to receive funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to perform cleanup of the site. The funds will be used to excavate and dispose of lead-contaminated soil at residential properties, including places where children live and play. Young children are at greatest risk for possible lead poisoning.
“This federal-state-local partnership between EPA, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and the City of Atlanta will get children back on the playground and residents back to enjoying their park,” Administrator Kevin McOmber of EPA’s Southeast Region said. “We are proud to play a role in making Lindsay Street Park safe for children.”
The ongoing cleanup of the Westside Lead Site is expected to take six years and cost $49 million, funded by federal and state dollars.
In the spring of 2013, Proctor Creek was designated as an Urban Waters Federal Partnership watershed, now involving at least 10 federal government agencies including: the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, FEMA, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, and the Army Corps of Engineers. The group has expanded to include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the USDA Forest Service, the National Park Service, Economic Development Administration, United States Geological Survey, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the General Services Administration.
The Proctor Creek watershed includes: 69,000 residents, 11 neighborhood planning units, 38 neighborhoods, 15 small business corridors, and 300 urban streams.
Given that the Proctor Creek watershed runs adjacent to some of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Atlanta, the federal partnership strives to empower local, underserved communities by reconnecting people to their local waterways, strengthening the economy, supporting a healthier environment, and building community capacity.
“Federal partnership is crucial to completing the cleanup needed to make the neighborhood safer for all those who live, work and play on Atlanta’s Westside,” Jeff Cown, director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, said. “We are grateful to EPA for their partnership and look forward to this popular park being reopened for the community.”
Featured image: Volunteers clean up Proctor Creek as it flows through Lindsay Street Park, April 2014, (Photo by Maria Saporta)
