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Cobb County Fleet Management Joins EPA’s National Partnership for Environmental Priorities - Company commits to using lead-free wheel weights and recycling 2,500 pounds of lead

Release Date: 08/19/2009
Contact Information: Laura Niles, (404) 562-8353, [email protected]

(Marietta, Ga. – August 19, 2009) The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today recognized Cobb County Fleet Management (CCFM) in Marietta, Ga. as the newest environmental steward to join the National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP). The commitment includes the use of environmentally safe, lead-free wheel weights, as well as the implementation of recycling lead wheel weights used on the existing fleet of automobiles and trucks used in daily CCFM operations. CCFM anticipates that 2,500 pounds of lead will be safely recycled, eliminating a potential toxic pollutant from posing a risk to human health and the environment.

“We commend Cobb County Government and its Fleet Management team for its commitment to reducing lead pollution from the county government’s large fleet,” said EPA Acting Regional Administrator Stan Meiberg. “Voluntary partnerships like this are an essential way of advancing environmental protection.”

Commenting on the recognition, County Commissioner Helen Goreham said, “the Cobb County Government continues to be a leader in the region and the state in its stewardship of the environment … be it through land use, proper stormwater management, wastewater treatment facilities, in-house recycling and other initiatives such as the Fleet Division’s elimination of lead tire weights.”

EPA formed the NPEP to pursue the goal of reducing the use or release of 31 highly toxic, priority chemicals found in America’s manufacturing processes. It has established a National Waste Minimization Goal to act as a measurement of program success. The goal is to work with industry and the public to reduce the use or release of 4 million pounds of priority chemicals by 2011.

Cobb County Fleet Management is located on County Services Parkway in Marietta, Ga., with 35 employees servicing over 1,725 vehicles from police cars to motorgraders.