Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

the NYCDOH and ATSDR initiated an indoor air study in November 2001. The sampling phase was completed in December 2001, preliminary results released to the public in February 2002, and the final report issued by ATSDR in September 2002. The results of this study are discussed later in this chapter.

Indoor dust contamination from WTC debris. Source: EPA/ORD - Photo courtesy of Dr. Lung Chi Chen - NYU

In the weeks following the disaster, EPA was involved in testing various indoor spaces. EPA worked with the U.S. Coast Guard^ to monitor offices in the Wall Street area so that employees could enter their offices and obtain needed files. On September 13,2001, EPA tested for asbestos in its building located at 290 Broadway. Further, on September 17,2001, EPA sampled dust in the Jacob Javits Convention Center complex, and on October 23,2001, tested in the Department of Justice offices on 100 Church Street.

Details on the results of EPA’s indoor testing, as well as General Services Administration testing of Federal buildings and three significant non-EPA studies, are in Appendix K.

Also, EPA conducted preliminary indoor assessments of 11 buildings at the request of the Ground Zero Elected Officials Task Force. These preliminary assessments included inspecting the interiors of the buildings, discussing cleanup plans with building owners/managers, and collecting dust samples from four of the buildings - three schools and one apartment building. An EPA Situation

7 The U.S. Coast Guard maintains strike teams that typically deploy for responses to oil and hazardous chemical spills and were deployed in response to the WTC attacks.

24 Report No. 2003-P-00012

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