McOmber Delivers Earth Day Message: Spend Time Outdoors, Enjoy the Sense of Place our Green Spaces Provide

McOmber Delivers Earth Day Message: Spend Time Outdoors, Enjoy the Sense of Place our Green Spaces Provide

ATLANTA (April 23, 2026) - On Wednesday, April 22, 2026, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Southeast Regional Administrator Kevin McOmber reflected in an op-ed piece on his past experience as an engineer designing a public park in Suwanee, Georgia. He encouraged everyone to enjoy public green spaces, which benefit communities and economies.

I have seen up close how important green spaces are to communities and experienced how they bring people together, improve our health, and enhance our environment.

Prior to joining EPA's Southeast Region, I designed a park for Suwanee, Georgia. The community wanted an identity and a sense of place. Today, Town Center Park serves as an anchor for the downtown, now alive with local businesses. The park serves as a gathering spot with open spaces, an amphitheater, and an interactive fountain for children.

Being a part of making Suwanee's vision a reality was satisfying. Now, I am proud to be one of many at EPA's Southeast Region working to make sure everyone has access to safe, healthy spaces to gather.

For the FIFA World Cup, more than a million people are expected to gather in Atlanta and Miami. EPA will monitor air at the global event to help protect the health of our guests and residents, as well as assist with programs for recycling and waste reuse.

In addition to our efforts surrounding the World Cup, we remain fully committed to projects that support of our mission to protect human health and the environment, including:

• Removing lead-contaminated soil at Atlanta's Lindsay Street Parkas part of the Atlanta Westside Lead Superfund Site. We look forward to this park reopening this summer after City of Atlanta installs a playground.

• Awarding brownfields grantsand lending our expertise to redevelopment projects such as cleaning up an old school in rural Ballard County, Kentucky. This will allow the site to be developed into retail shops and an event space, taking advantage of its location near the entry to a wildlife refuge.

• Deleting four superfund sitesfrom the National Priorities List, which is a significant number of full deletions for a single year. One of these sites, Miami Drum Services, has already been returned to productive reuse.

• Collaborating with the Department of Energy to continue remediation at the Oak Ridge Reservation Superfund Site. Large portions of the site have already been redeveloped.

At EPA, every day is Earth Day. Green spaces are vital to our culture, well-being, and connectedness to our neighbors and the world around us. Please join me in enjoying this Earth Day, being a part of our wonderful outdoors and appreciating the sense of place that green spaces give us.