EPA/NYC Approach Request to FEMA, April 24, 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

when large amounts of visible dust have accumulated in apartments, and/or no cleaning has been performed to date, or any other unexpected circumstance arises that puts employees at risk; no cleaning will take place, or cleaning will immediately be discontinued until EPA, OSHA and the City coordinate to ensure that the employees performing the cleaning use appropriate personal protective clothing and equipment commensurate with the potential for emloyee risk. b) Testing for airborne asbestos withi’ residences or building areas. (Should testing results identify an airborne asbestos problem, arrangements can be made rapidly to have professional clean up done.) c) Providing HEPA vacuums to residences who request to perform their own cleaning on an ongoing basis. Projected Cost: Needs to be determined. (The March 11 broad mission assignment submittal was for $80 million based upon a gross estimate of 5,000 apartments requesting clean up and post testing.) Vacuums cost approximately $400/each. / partment cleaning is approximately $14,000/apartment. Testing for asbest -s is approxunately $3,000/apartment. Commercial space cleaning and .esting is $6-8 /sq. foot. Total costs will not be available until the information campaign is complete and EPA can determine the extent of what will be required. Status ofRequestfor FEMA mission assignment: Awaiting initial FEMA feedback.

2. Targeted Samplmg to Determine if There are Occupied Locations Requir^Additional Cleaning

Objective: To determine whether there are levels of airborne asbestos in excess of benchmarked level in a geographic sample of indoor environments in Lower Manhattan. Program: EPA will collect airborne asbestos samples within a variety of residential buildings in different geographic areas of Lower Manhattan, south of Canal Street. Based upon this data, and other data available, EPA and NYC expect to have a better ability to provide a qualitative reassurance that clean ups already conducted by building owners and residents are effective. EPA will identify the locales to be sampled and will work with building owners and residents to obtain access for this sampling. If sampling determines that cleaning is required, EPA, working with NYC, will ensure that the cleaning is undertaken as soon possible. EPA will publically release the information collected from this sampling as it becomes available on a rolling basis, to keep the public informed of results. Projected Cost: $3000 per location sampled. Estimate 25- 50 locations. Status ofRequestfor FEMA mission assignment: Awaiting initial FEMA feedback.

3. Pilot Building Cleaning EfFort to Confiiniu. Cleaning Technion

Objective: Evaluate the effectiveness of clean up techniques which'have been recommended for apartment clean up, that is, wet wiping, wet moping and use of HEPA filtered vacuums, in preventing inhalation exposure to asbestos and other fibrous materials, as well as other potential indicator compoimds.

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