310 GREENWICH STREET Block: 142 Lot: 25 BIN: 1083239 40 Harrison Street/Independence Plaza

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Montessori School, before it closed, that there was a mold problem in the pool area. We would like this situation assessed and abated during the full building cleanup as well.

At the first EPA-9/11 Environmental Action Coalition meeting, the EPA informed everyone that mailings to residents in Lower Manhattan, and an advertising campaign, would commence shortly after the hot line number was made available to the public. To date, the tenants of IPN have not received any mailings from the EPA educating them and suggesting that they call for an individual apartment cleanup. Nor have we seen any advertising posted at bus-stops or phone booths, as stated at that meeting. When is this to begin? It is urgent that the residents immediately begin to receive full and frank information about the possible dangers they face, in order to help them make the best decisions to protect their health.

We also think that it makes no sense to set a deadline for cleanup requests, as EPA has done, before any serious public outreach and education has been accomplished. We ask that EPA rescind its deadline until such time as the public has been honestly informed and aggressively educated regarding the need to have their homes thoroughly cleaned.

Our research has shown that rugs, sofas and other "soft" home furnishings could possibly be contaminated, and, since contaminants are virtually impossible to remove completely from these items, the safest approach is to discard such articles. At the EPA-9/11 EAC meeting the week of July 3, EPA stated that funds will be available to replace these items. We feel that it is very important that EPA's educational material inform tenants that carpeting is a particularly effective reservoir for toxic materials? If residents decline to discard such furnishings, how will they be cleaned to achieve the safest possible result? We feel strongly that any carpets, rugs, sofas etc. that remain must be cleaned by the EPA using the wet process HEPA vacuum system. Although our research shows that even this method may only remove 60 percent of toxic fibers, it also shows that dry HEPA vacuuming removes almost none of the fibers.

We strongly urge that arrangements be made between the EPA and IPN management in order for vacant apartments to be cleaned as well.

During our telephone conversation, you stated that, once I submitted the full building cleanup request, you would let me know how many tenants have already called for apartment cleanups. This information is important for us to assess our situation, but I have not yet received these numbers from you. Additionally, a tenant at 80 N.Moore reported that when he called the EPA for his apartment cleaning and inquired about the whole building cleanup, he was informed that this was not being arranged yet because the management company did not request it. The whole building form clearly states: Managers OR Executive Board member of the tenant association. Having spoken to you, I assumed that my filing of the application was sufficient. Is this not the case? Did you in fact receive my whole building request for IPN?

Please call me at your earliest convenience within the next two weeks, so that we can set a meeting date. Thank you very much for your attention to these matters.

NYC-WTC 000134696