World Trade Center environmental data report, 2001-2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

agencies involved, more focused at the time on evidence collection than environmental health, but still calling for unprecedented coordination.

In a television interview with NBC a month after the attacks, FEMA’S Director Joe Allbaugh said, “You have over 26 federal, state and local agencies working together, it’s an unbelievable site—folks working shoulder-to-shoulder; sifting over debris. I mean fine-tooth comb with rakes and a lot of it by hand. They pull out and segment, segregate the large items, the steel beams and whatnot. But it is a thorough, thorough process, looking for any evidence, looking for individuals, remains of individuals, that we can help families bring closure to those questions that they’re asking right now. I’m very impressed with the organization that they have.”

Matters were not so straightforward when it came to coordinating who was doing what with respect to environmental health. H At any one time, there were H dozens of city, state and federal I agencies responding and I mobilized, many of them working 18 hour days. The city’s Fire Department directed the rescue and recovery, while the city Department of Design and Construction supervised the four 11 8S iI contractors at the site. Several agencies shared air quality issues, including the federal EPA, the DOH and the State Department of Environmental Conservation. Photo: Michael Rieger/FEMA News Photo But for every issue there were many overlapping agencies involved: like the issue of protecting the rescue workers from the toxic dust in the air.

“I was getting a little rubbery,” he remembers. “I had to come home and decompress. But it was tough to sleep.” “We met three times a day to discuss the level of respiratory protection needed and to analyze sampling data,” says McKinney.

Many of those representatives from those agencies say they much appreciated those regular calls and meetings to attempt to coordinate functions and eliminate duplication.

“God bless Kelly and his staff—for he put it under one command,” says Burger. ‘Anything affecting the environment was put under his command.”

Others say that the meetings got fairly contentious. “Many of the safety people were asking for the city and contractors to slow things down,” says Bruce Lippy. “You don’t work 12 hour shifts for two weeks in a collapsed structure without it getting to you.” For many, says Lippy, the psychological impacts alone were physically bruising.

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