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

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

day since the attack been collecting environmental monitoring data from the WTC destruction zone and surrounding area. Samples from a variety of media, including air, bulk dust, water, river sediments, and drinking water have been taken and analyzed for the presence of contaminants that could pose a health risk to those working or living in the surrounding vicinity. As of November 14, 2001, approximately 66,000 sample results have been collected from monitoring stations all over Manhattan, Staten Island, New Jersey, and Brooklyn for asbestos, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), inorganic analytes, heavy metals, particulate matter, and other parameters. The agencies have been entering these data into the NYC Monitoring Data Retrieval database as they have become available. EPA has provided a great deal of information to the public via the Internet on the results of these analyses, the standards used to evaluate potential health risks, and the areas associated with the monitoring activities. Links to some of the web sites containing this information are as follows:

EPA WTC data summary reports: http:IIwww.epa.gov/epahome/wtcldata_summary.htm EPA benchmarks and standards http://www.epa.gov/epahome/wte/activities.htm Fixed Air Monitoring Station Map http://www.epa.gov/epahome/wtc/monstations.htm Asbestos Monitoring Site Map http://www.epa.gov/enviro/nyc/asbestos/ Bulk Dust Monitoring Site Map http://www.epa.gov/enviro/nyc/bulkdust/ PM 2.5 Monitoring Site Map http://www.epa.gov/enviro/nyc/pm25/

While significant amounts of environmental information have been collected thus far and the results for individual analytes have been routinely reported to the public by EPA, a collective assessment of all of the data for trends has not to our understanding yet been performed. The purpose of this report is an attempt to address this need.

TECHNICAL APPROACH

The data used by IT QATS in developing this trend report only include those environmental results available in the NYC Response Monitoring Data Retrieval database. Data from other sources (i.e., those collected by OSHA) were not evaluated.

The NYC database is a secure archive containing environmental data collected by agencies including the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), and the USEPA. As of November 14, 2001, it contained approximately 66,000 results for four hundred ninety-seven (497) analytes including VOCs (i.e., benzene, chloromethane, 2-butanone, vinyl chloride, etc.), polynuclear aromatic hyrocarbons (PAHs) (i.e., benzo(a)pyrene), chlorinated dibenzidioxins/furans, pesticides (i.e., DDT, endrin), polychorinated biphenyls (PCBs), inorganic metals (i.e., arsenic, lead, cadmium, etc.), asbestos, particulate matter (i.e., PM 2.5, PM 10), and others. For each sample in the database, there are up to 75 associated fields, including 26 station information fields, 24 sample information fields, and 25 result information fields. A complete listing of analytes in the database (as of November 14, 2001) is provided in Attachment 1.

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