Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Chapter 7 EPA Should Continue Efforts to Improve Contingency Planning The events of September 11 represented an attack on the U.S. mainland not previously experienced in this country’s history. The response to this tragedy was trying and difficult for all parties involved, including environmental professionals. Many of the persons we interviewed spoke highly of the response of EPA and its employees. Still, lessons were learned from the September 11 response that can be used to improve the Agency’s ability to respond to future disasters. The primary lessons learned from our evaluation relate to:

• Contingency planning • Risk assessment and characterization • Risk communication

An overriding lesson learned was that EPA needs to be prepared to assert its opinion and judgment on matters that impact human health and the environment. Although many organizations were involved in addressing air quality concerns resulting from the WTC collapse, subsequent events have demonstrated that, ultimately, the public. Congress, and others expect EPA to monitor and resolve environmental issues. This is the case even when EPA may not have the overall responsibility to resolve these issues or the necessary resources to address them.

Various Actions Initiated EPA and several non-EPA groups and individuals prepared “lessons learned” reports on the government’s response to environmental issues resulting from September 11. We generally agree with the recommendations made in these reports. A summary on the previous lessons learned areas follows in Table 7-1. Further details on the lessons learned as part of both EPA and non-EPA reviews are in Appendix N.

55 Report No. 2003-P-00012

NYC-WTC_000145410