Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Table 7-1: Previous Lessons Learned Reviews

Type of Review EPA Office of Solid Waste and • Decision making and communication Emergency Response, per request • Emergency response structure and plans by EPA Administrator, determined > Data analysis and information lessons learned between management infrastructure September 11, 2001, and October 19, • Public information dissemination 2001. Results were summarized in a • Resources final report dated February 1, 2002. • Safety and security • Environmental vulnerabilities EPA Region 2 conducted a region- Overarching Recommendation Areas specific lessons learned analysis. The • Planning Region held an "after action session” • Coordination in Edison, New Jersey, on January 9- • Resources 10, 2002, and issued a final report Specific Recommendation Areas dated January 8, 2003. • Public risk communication • Data management • Regional crisis management structure EPA Office of Research and • Quality assurance project plan Development held a data-oriented • Mechanism for tracking monitoring tasks lessons learned workshop in • Improved health-related benchmarks for November 2002. The report was asbestos and short-term exposures of still in draft as of our review. pollutants in general • Identification of technical expertise teams that could be called on to assist with technical decisions Environmental experts and others • Better risk communication prepared lessons learned reports from • Health-related benchmarks assessing September 2002 to December 2002. exposure • Clearer lines of authority between government agencies in responding to environmental issues

In September 2002, EPA issued its “Strategic Plan for Homeland Security,” which outlines the Agency’s plan for meeting its homeland security responsibilities. This Strategic Plan includes many proposed actions recommended in EPA’s February 2002 Lessons Learned report. The goals of the plan are grouped under four major mission areas:

• Critical Infrastructure Protection • Preparedness, Response, and Recovery • Communication and Information • Protection of EPA Personnel and Infrastructure

The second and third mission areas - “Preparedness, Response, and Recovery” and “Communication and Information” - are particularly relevant to the issues

56 Report No. 2003-P-00012

NYC-WTC_000145411