Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Recent Developments In May 2003, EPA participated in a Department of Homeland Security- administered Top Officials exercise with other Federal, State, local, and Canadian government organizations. This exercise simulated weapons of mass destruction incidents with the goals of: (1) improving the nation's capacity to manage extreme events; (2) creating broader frameworks for the operation of expert crisis and consequence management systems; (3) validating authorities, strategies, plans, policies, procedures, and protocols; and (4) building a sustainable, systematic national exercise program to support the national strategy for homeland security.

Further, on June 27, 2003, EPA issued the EPA National Approach to Response Policy to implement a new approach to responding to Nationally Significant Incidents. The Policy calls for a multi-faceted and coordinated approach to managing EPA’s emergency response assets during a Nationally Significant Incident. A key aspect of the policy is that it requires EPA to operate under an Incident Command System approach based on the National Interagency Incident Management System. EPA plans to supplement the Policy with guidance to fully characterize roles and responsibilities within the Agency to manage a Nationally Significant Incident. As noted in the Policy, Homeland Security Presidential Directive-5 calls for the development of a new National Response Plan and a single, comprehensive National Incident Management System. As standards, guidelines, and protocols are developed to implement the national system, EPA will modify its National Approach to Response Policy as necessary.

Conclusions Although many organizations were involved in addressing air quality concerns resulting from the WTC collapse, subsequent events have demonstrated that, ultimately, the public and others expect EPA to monitor and resolve environmental issues, even though EPA may not have the overall responsibility to resolve these issues or the necessary resources to address them. These issues range from collecting, interpreting, and communicating environmental information to cleaning up any environmental contamination, EPA must be prepared to take a leadership role, within the evolving framework established by the Department of Homeland Security and existing statutes, in fulfilling its mission of “protecting human health and the environment,” if another large-scale disaster occurs.

68 Report No. 2003-P-00012

NYC-WTC_000145423