WTC document preservation notice, NYC Law Department

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Pr^ss Release Page 2 of3

owners and mangers, and of private workspaces to tenants. DEP sent an official request for environmental quality information from building owners and managers in February 2002.

However, Rep. Nadler announced that the results of a Freedom of Infonnation Law (FOIL) request submitted by Joel Kupferman of the New York Environmental Law «& Justice Project show that as of last month, DEP only possesses data from 218 downtown buildings. That is out of a total of approximately 1900 buildings - little more than 11%. They are all below Canal, Pike and Allen Streets — the same arbitrary boundary used by EPA for its residential cleanup plan. Many of these responses are incomplete or inadequate. For building owners or managers that did not respond, DEP has not issued a single citation.

EPA LIED ABOUT KNOWING “WHO IS IN CHARGE*’

For more than a year, the EPA has maintained that the City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is in charge when it comes to cleaning up indoor workspaces. But, in sworn testimony given last month, the Assistant Administrator of EPA, Marianne Horinko, admitted that Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) 62, which dictates how the federal agencies are to respond to an act of terrorism, mandates that EPA must clean up inside buildings. The transcript from that deposition (Hitgh B. Kaufman v. US EPA, Jan. 6 2003) is as follows:

Question: Who in EPA, who is the individual who has the ultimate lead for the cleanup of interiors? Is it you?

Answer: Ultimately I suppose it would be Governor Whitman as the administrator. Since I do report to her, I am certainly the lead on emergency response.

Question: Is cleaning up the interiors an emergency response?

Answer: Yes, it is.

Ms. Horinko's testimony is a stark departure from previous statements made by Administrator Whitman, who said on PBS's Newshour back in April, "If there is an area where there is a 'hole,' this is where it is, in response, because it's just a little murky here as to who has the responsibility, who is responsible for the cleanup."

SERIOUS

The EPA has maintained since days after the collapse of the World Trade Center, that the area is safe. Yet, today, Rep. Nadler introduced victims to discuss test results, health and financial impacts, and other issues related to EPA's false safety assurances and lack of action. For example:

http://www.house.gov/nadler/EPA 021003.htm 4/2/03

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