EPA and City Plan for Indoor Air Quality, May 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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In lower Manhattan, the City of New York has also been involved in efforts to clean anything coated with debris dust resulting from Tuesday's destruction. This involves spraying water over buildings, streets and sidewalks to wash foe accumulated dust off foe building and eliminate foe possibility that materials would become airborne. To complement this clean up effort, EPA has performed 62 dust sample analyses for foe presence of asbestos and other substances. Most dust samples fell below EPA's definition of "asbestos containing material" (one percent asbestos). Where samples have shown greater than one percent asbestos, EPA has operated its 10 High EfiBcieney Particulate Arreting, HEPA, vacuum trucks to clean the area and then resample. EPA also used the 10 HEPA vac trucks to clean streets and sidewalks in foe Financial District in preparation for Monday's return to business. The Agency plans to use HEPA vac trucks to clean the lobbies of foe five federal buildings near the World Trade Center site, and to clean foe streets outside of New York's City Hall. Drinking waler in Manhattan was tested at 13 sampling points, in addition to one test at the Newtown Sewage Treatment plant and pump station. Initial results of this drinking water sampling show that levels of asbestos arc well below EPA’a levels of concern. While FEMA has provided EPA with a Total Project Ceiling cost of slightly more than $83 million for the Agency’s cleanup efforts in New York City and in at the Pentagon site, EPA currently is working with emergency funding of $23.7 million. If costs exceed this level, FEMA will authorize EPA to tap additional funding in increments of $ 15 million. As part of the additional ftinding to be provided by FEMA, EPA will be responsible for any hazardous waste disposal, general site safety and providing sanitation facilities for many of the search and rescue workers to wash foe dust off following their shifts. EPA is coordinating with both foe U.S. Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence and the U.S. Coast Guard to quickly implement these additional responsibilities to ensure foat search and rescue personnel are provided with foe maximum support and protection from hazardous materials that may be found during their mission.

At Ac Pentagon explosion site in Arlington Va., EPA has also been involved in a variety of monitoring of air and water quality. AU ambient air monitoring results, both close to the crash site and in the general vicinity, have shown eit^ no detection of asbestos ^r levels that Call well below the Agency's level of concern. Testing of runoff water from the disaster site does not show elevated levels of contaminants. Given the large numbers of Department of Defense (DOD) employees returning to woA (his wedc, EPA has worked closely with officials &om DOD and from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to evaluate air and drinking water quality and to be certain that the workplace environment will be safe. /

While careful not to impede the search, rescue and cleani^ efforts at either die World Trade Center or the Pentagon disaster sites, EPA's primary concern has been to ensure that rescue workers and die public are not being exposed to elevated levels of potentially hazardous contaminants in the dust and debris, especially where practical solutions are available to redixx exposure. EPA has assisted efforts to provide dust masks to rescue workers to minimize inhalation of dust. EPA also recommends that die blast site debris continue to be kept wet. which helps to significantly reduce the amount of airborne dust which can aggravate respiratory ailments such as asthma. C:>s>(e facilities are being made available fer rescue workers to clean themselves, change their clothing and to have dust-laden clothes cleaned separately from normal household wash. R.157###

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