FAX cover sheet re exterior cleaning, Sep 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

was constructed sometime shortly after the civil war in Eighteen Seventy two and known as" the Bennett Building" designed by Arthur D. Gilman. The owners Informed us and also through my own personal knowledge that this building is a one of a kind building and possibly the tallest cast iron structure in New York City. The building originally was built as a seven story building and an additional four floors was added to the building in Eighteen Eighty Eight. Since this building is a Hundred Thirty years old it has many stylistic architectural elements not found on any twentieth century building.

Due to the age of the building there are certainly many maintenance question that have to be addressed. The first most important issue regarding the WTC cleanup is the fact that there is peeling paint on almost all of the entire building. In our preliminary work we took samples from a window silt of the WTC dust and also two paint samples and sent them to the Ambient Laboratories In Glencove, New York (includes please find copy of the report). The samples were tested and the WTC dust has found to have a 1.5 % of CHRYSTOTILE and 30 % Fiber Mass these two contaminants are the most important as they present the greatest amount of risk to public safety. Two paint chips were tested, the first chip was only tested on the paint side of the chip, it had no evidence of chrystotile but it had a 40% fiber glass. The second sample only the back side of the chip was tested, this also showed only 5% fiber glass and no chrystotile. At this point this is only preliminary examination and we did not go through extensive testing, but assuredly in this large structure the presence of contaminants can be found everywhere including cracks in the paint, window frames, bituminous coatings and possibly imbedded in some of the numerous patching systems that were used on this structure.

We did not even entertain the testing of the paint as we are sure that the paint is lead base due to the age of the building. The owner had tested the paint on the 4th of March 2002 by the Lead Investigations Inc. of Brooklyn, New York (please see inclosed report).

Now as we try to formulate a plan for a clean up of WTC contaminants, we find the lead paint to be another major factor, In general the rule for scrapping loose and peeling paint with lead content, is an example fire escapes, which have to be maintained by law, the DEP allows the scrapping of loose paint and collection of the chips by basically covering the work area and collecting the chips for disposal at a hazardous waste disposal facility. This work and other peeling paint from buildings can be carried out by swinging scaffolds with tarps lowered over the back of the scaffold and tarps on the platform to collect the chips. Also, sidewalk bridging to protect the public Is also generally used. Here, on this particular project due to the Asbestos and Fiber glass contamination, it would require total encapsulation. The only way that this work could be possible, would be to scaffold the entire building with steel scaffolds frames and load bearing sidewalk bridging. Unlike most of the other buildings in the area, they are generally brick masonry, some with stone ornamentation but certainly

NYC-WTC 000099233