Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document CHAPTER 2 EPA STATEMENTS ABOUT AIR QUALITY NOT ADEQUATELY QUALIFIED Report Conclusions/Recommendations: Coneinsion: “EPA's early statements about air quality were incomplete in that they lacked necessary qualifications and not supported by data available at the time. CEQ influenced the final message in EPA's air quality statements. Compcting considerations, such $ national security concems and the desire to rcopen Wall Strect, also played a role in EPA's ait quality statements. The “safety” of the air io Lower Manhattan after the collapse of the WTC towers is still being debated and studied. However, given the current lack of heaith-based benchmarks, the Jack of rescarch dats on synergistic effects, and the lack of reliable information on the extent of the public’s exposure to these pollutents, the answer to whether the outdoor air around WTC wes “safe” to breathe ray not be seftied for ycars to come.” Recommendation: That the EPA Administrator develop procedures fos emergency risk communication to ensure that BPA‘s public pronouncements regarding health risks and environmental quality are adequately supported with available data and analysis. EPA Response: NYC-WTC_000145476 The EPA “statewent” referred to in the report waa made days after the attack, based on gir sampling at seven sites surrounding the WIC site. The Agency knew, from testing [Bee Appendix conducted at the time of the 1993 WTC borabing, that asbestos was the primary contaminant of concern outside the WTC site. Following 9/11, the news modia was filled with stories about possible asbestos contamination of the air. Tans of thousands of tesidents and hundseds of thousands of workers were displaced and seared, EPA's initial statement was made in direct response to the public’s concern about asbestos contamination. The EPA press release from which the staternent was quoted detailed the monitoring that ted to the statement and made it clear that further monitoring for asbestos and other contaminants would take place. EPA subsequently made this and extensive additional monitoring data available on an interactive Web site that allowed people to EPA never withheld data from the public and sampling results were reported aut as s00n as they were reviewed. Results were communicated in discussions with media ooo occessessneessssseeeenee representatives, federal, state and focal officisis, clected officials and interested citizens (See Appendix R The Agency did coordinate press releases with the Council for Environmental Quatity Note 13 (CEQ). This is nvither unusual nor unexpected during a catastrophic disaster on the scale 2 . 121 Report No. 2003-P-00012