EPA press release on WTC cleaning hotline launch, June 2002

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i o o o —X .Sx w o yi Oil Leaks Need Cleanup 2 -< O <o

“D c CT o' ■0 O In the first phase of the plan, workers q. will excavate and remove soil to a dept) of 2-stage plan at least 10 feet in the 1.33-ncre site, the re- port. said. In the second phase, the south­ o o o c already begun ern two-thirds of the site will be excava :ed an additional 17 feet for a total of 27 fe it. Some of the oil was recovered fiom trenches, manholes, areas adjacent to the 3 CD 3

By Graham Rayman project site and even the basement of the STAFF WHITKR Verizon building, the report said. To the list of areas requiring an ongoing In December, Con Edison bored into the environmental cleanup around Ground soil in nine spots and sank ground iwa- Zero, add the site of Seven World Trade ter-monitoring wells, finding oil in those Center. tests including two of the wells. One well The collapse of the 47-story tower there contained three inches of oil, and the other resulted in the release of 130,000 gallons about a half inch. of oil from the Consolidated Edison substa­ Under the cleanup plan, any grount wa- tion, while an unspecified amount of oil ter exposed during the excavation will leaked from two damaged storage tanks have to be treated before it can be pun ped formerly owned by Salomon Smith Bar­ into the sewage system for disposal. ney, an environmental report says. Tire site also contained two 6,000-g; lion In addition to the oil residue, the ground underground diesel storage tanks, for: ner- underneath Seven World Trade Center ly operated by Salomon Smith Barney. In housed conduits potentially containing as­ October, DEC officials determined Ithat bestos and feeder lines wrapped in coal the tanks were breached in the collapses tar, which may contain PCBs (polychlori­ and a spill had resulted. I nated biphenyls), a toxic substance used in The tanks were removed in early May, electrical equipment before 1977. The in­ but petroleum had leaked into the soil by formation is contained in an environmen­ then. Workers are excavating the area tal impact report made public this week by around the tanka to remove the contami­ the Empire State Development Corp. nated soil. Workers at the site are executing a Two 11,690-gallon diesel fuel tanks, op­ two-phase cleanup program developed erated by Silverstein Properties, also were with the state Department of Environmen­ in the structure. In February, DEC offi- tal Conservation. cials ordered Silverstein to close the t inks, The cleanup is and the tanks were removed in Marc i and part of the initial April, with no evidence of leakage present. excavation work Steve Solomon, a spokesman for £ ilver- at the site to pre­ stein Properties, did not return a phone call. pare for the Con Edison spokesman Mike Clen ienin planned recon­ said low amounts of oil were found in struction of a Con Edison substation and an office, tower there by 2005. groundwater wells, and an unknown quan­ tity was burned and / or absorbed into the debris and previously removed. NeWSCiQlJ I i