WTC document preservation notice, NYC Law Department

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

I Today, we are catling Into question the Integrity of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) testing and cleanup of hazardous materials In downtown Manhattan, There is a gross disparity in how the EPA has responded to the 9/11 attacks as against other instances of hazardous materials contamination around the country. I fear that the EPA has abrogated its responsibility to protect public health by proclaiming lower Manhattan ‘safe' without comprehensive data to support that conclusion. The EPA has conducted NO testu of residential homes in New York City, even though it hes done so in other cases around the country. The EPA must eliminate this disparity now. The EPA must test residential homes Immediately, and If necessary, dean ell contaminated areas using property trained personnel under the strictest federal

guidelines.

In addition, l call upon the ERA Nationat Ombudsman to expand his investigation into the Agency’s handling of tee post 8/11 attacks here in New York. This investigation must be performed independently, thorough^ end expeditiously without any obstejctlon. I urge Administrator Whitman not to continue her quest to dissolve the office of the Ombudsman end, in

so doing, further call into question the integrity of the X^ency,

f On Septe.mber 18* Administrator Whitman said she was 'glad to reassure tee people of New York.. .test their ax Is safe

to breathe, and teeir water is safe to crink " i sincerely hope she was right However, given teat the EPA has not tested inside people's homes, despite my repeated requests for it to do so, how could tee EPA have comprehensive data to support this claim either way? More Imporiantiy. when the EPA was presented with test results showing elevated levels of

hazardous materials in downtown apartments, it chose to do nothing.

ERA Region (1 ofiittels have claimed in muttiplc public statements that they have no responsibility for Indoor testing end

cleaning of residences in lower Manhattan, in a November 20* N9w Yoilt DaSy News article, Region ii Counsel Walter

Mugdan said. They phe federal regulations] were never contemplated to apply to someone cleaning an apartment" Bonnie Bellow, spokesperson for Region il said in a recant St Louis Post-Dispsteh article That’s not our Job and we have r»o policies or procedures fer doing teat type of testing." She else stated vts not a health agency."

However, I have spoken with EPA officials who dispute the accuracy of those statements. The EPA National Ombudsman, Robert Martin, confirmed for me that the agency is, in feet, currently doing indoor testing and removal of

hazardous materials in Herculaneum, Missouri, and has also dona so in McFarland. California, and Kellog, Idaho. 3 80X90-d STS ddaazbcs -s-n 6f:6T 2002-iT-Nbr

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