World Trade Center environmental data report, 2001-2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

While that logic has won some converts, they write, the new crusade has triggered a chemical . industry lobbying campaign to stall any new regulation in the name of terrorism protection. (3) Earlier legislation that would have promoted industries moving toward least-toxic processes has been derailed while new legislation drafted by the White House and Sen. James Inhofe, the new chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, would I-"*' remove the EPA from control, giving authority instead to the Department of Homeland Security. “The new version also iWBI would give companies more credit for actions taken on their own,” they write. “It would give the government little, if any, authority to promote inherently safer technologies.” New York, NY—March 15.2002 Photo: Larry Lemer/FEMA News Photo

Have we learned anything in the two years’ worth of lessons? Environmental professionals cite a litany of lessons, as well as their recommendations for the future:

(1) Call a hazard a hazard.

Be ready to protect the public against all environmental risks by giving them ample warning. “It’s very clear that the government may have gone too far in reassuring people,” says Kenneth Olden of the NIEHS. “People are still suffering. And there well be long-term consequences to the public [from the hazards at the disaster site of the former World Trade Center.]”

Recommendation: Public officials need to be open about risks and hazards to the public, and agencies should not try to downplay those hazards.

(2) Ifit is a health emergency—as well as a disaster—treat it that way. Be clear about what kind ofevent it is.

Critics say EPA could have done more to protect residents from the pollutants coming off the Ground Zero site, by warning them, or making efforts to restrict them fi’om hazards.

Air pollution expert Thomas Cahill of the University of California at Davis, and Maijorie Clarke, hazardous waste expert at Lehman College fault the agencies for not coming up with a way to keep improtected populations away while the “pile” was burning like an uncontrolled incinerator.

If EPA has authority under the National Contingency Plan to control the release of hazardous substances it should be ready to address complex building fires in the future.

Define the perimeters of environmental contamination. There should have been systematic testing of dust and debris in different gradients from the epicenter of Ground Zero, to know the level of

103

NYC-WTC_000145021