Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

5 Air Quality-Related Communications Not Effective in Getting Public and Workers to Take Recommended Precautions 41 NYCDOH Survey Found Residents Wanted More Air Quality Information and Did Not Use Recommended Cleaning Procedures ......................... 41 Telephone Poll Indicated Public Did Not Believe Air Was Safe..................... 42 Unprotected Workers Cleaned Contaminated Offices and Residences ........ 42 Ground Zero Workers May Not Have Received Sufficient Information .......... 43 Recent Developments ................................................................................ 44 Conclusions............................................................................................... 44 Recommendation........................................................................................ 45 Agency and New York City Comments and OIG Evaluation ......................... 45

6 Further Actions Needed to Address Current WTC Response 47 WTC Outdoor Monitoring Ended June 2002 ................... 47 Indoor Residential Cleanup Program............................... 47 Actions Can Be Taken to Provide Additional Assurance That Indoor Cleanup Is Protective of Human Health . 50 Conclusions................................................................... 53 Recommendations......................................................... 53 Agency and New York City Comments and OIG Evaluation 54

7 EPA Should Continue Efforts to Improve Contingency Planning 55 Various Actions Initiated........................................................................................ 55 OIG Observations for Improving Emergency Response.......................................... 57 Contingency Planning ............................................................................ 57 Risk Assessment and Characterization.................................................... 60 Risk Communication .............................................................................. 63 EPA Actions to Improve Its Communications......................................................... 67 Recent Developments .......................................................................................... 68 Conclusions......................................................................................................... 68 Recommendations............................................................................................... 69 Agency Comments and OIG Evaluation................................................................. 70

Appendices A Federal Agencies Responding to the WTC Collapse .................................. 71 B Details on Scope and Methodology............................................................. 73 C ERA September 18,2001 Press Release .................................................... 77 D Screening Levels Used by EPA to Assess Outdoor Air Quality..................... 79 E EPA Outdoor Air Asbestos Sampling for September 2001 ............................. 81 F EPA Outdoor Bulk Dust Asbestos Test Results for September 2001 .............. 83 G EPA September 16,2001 Press Release .................................................... 85 H EPA September 13,2001 Press Release .................................................... 87 I Non-Govemmental Environmental Experts Interviewed................................ 89 J NYCDEP October 25, 2001 Instructions to Residents.................................. 91 K Indoor Air and Dust Test Results................................................................. 93 L Details on Use of Respirators at Ground Zero.............................................. 99 M Cleaning Procedures for Residents Opting to Have Their Residences Cleaned 103 N Details from EPA and Non-EPA Lessons Learned Reports........................... 105 O Details on Health-Based Benchmarks Needed ............................................ 113 P EPA Letter Concerning Worker Protection.................................................... 115 Q EPA Response to the Draft Report ............................................................. 117 R OIG Evaluation of the Agency’s Response .................................................. 131 S New York City Response to Draft Report Excerpts ...................................... 139 T OIG Evaluation of New York City’s Response.............................................. 149 U Distribution................................................................................................. 155

vi Report No. 2003-P-00012

NYC-WTC_000145520