Special Investigative Audit #14 Draft, WTC Site, Nov 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

ENVIRONMENTAL DATA TREND REPORT WORLD TRADE CENTER DISASTER (2nd DRAFT)

INTRODUCTION

The IT Corporation Quality Assurance Technical Support (IT QATS) Program was tasked by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) on October 18, 2001 to evaluate environmental data collected in the aftermath of the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster. The task involved accessing environmental data compiled in the New York City (NYC) Response Monitoring Data Retrieval database, and evaluating those data for trends by analyte, location, and collection dates. IT QATS evaluated all results present in the database as of November 14, 2001. As of this date, approximately 66,000 results for samples collected between September 11, 2001 to November 13, 2001, have been entered. This report provides a summary of the trends observed for select analytes with elevated concentrations or of those with particular concern to the USEPA. Also presented are trend correlations between select analytes in representative chemical classes or correlations between sampling sites.

As conditions change at the WTC and other monitored sites, and additional monitoring results are entered, some of the trends reported here will likely change. To the extent possible, the most current results recorded in the NYC Response database have been used. This report is designed so that trend updates may be provided periodically (as needed and requested by the USEPA) to address changes in WTC site conditions, provide more detail on specific analytes of interest, provide additional focus on contamination from a particular location, or to provide additional detail for analytes not highlighted in this report.

This work was performed by IT QATS under Technical Direction 26, Task 07, Task Order 0001 of USEPA Contract 68-W-01-010.

BACKGROUND

The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 completely destroyed the twin towers and several surrounding buildings. The initial collapse of the buildings released a dust cloud that hovered over the area and penetrated into broken windows of buildings in the surrounding area. The dust cloud was comprised primarily of materials inherent to the construction of the collapsed buildings. In addition to the dust, fires, first ignited by jet fuel from the crashed planes, continue to bum deep in the rubble pile of what remains of the WTC Towers. These fires, fueled by combustible materials present in the destroyed buildings, are releasing a variety of gases and products of incomplete combustion. The concern is that some of the materials associated with the dust, including asbestos, airborne metals in dust, and particulate matter, and some of the components of the gases, including benzene and other potentially carcinogenic compounds, may cause health problems to workers and residents if they are present in sufficiently high concentrations.

To address this concern, the USEPA and other federal, state, and local agencies have each

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