If you’re out of bounds for federal lead cleanup in your Chattanooga backyard, you may still be able to get free help.
During a recent meeting, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency project manager Jasmin Jefferies said the organization’s federal lead removal project in the city, officially in place since 2019, is introducing a referral process in which people outside the targeted neighborhoods can still go through state officials to screen their property for high lead levels.
Then the EPA may come out to test and clean it up — but those properties may only qualify as of now under new guidelines set in 2025 by the second administration of President Donald Trump.
For years, the EPA has been trying to remove lead from Chattanooga backyards, especially those in the Southside area, due to contamination from dozens of iron, brass and bronze foundries that operated in the city until the 1980s. Over 1,000 properties have gone through EPA-sponsored cleanup efforts, according to the agency’s data — equaling about 220,314 tons of contaminated soil disposed of.