Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document Appendix Q EPA Response fo the Draft Report “Py”: UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ft i WASHINGTON, D.C, 20460 ad ME OE QUFICE OF THE ADAERISTRATOR MEMORANDUM SUBJECT: Transmittal Memorandum for EPA’s Response to inspector Genaral’s (Draft) Evaluation Report: “EPA’s Respoust: to the World Trade Canter Collapse -- Challenges, Success, and Improvements.” {Assignment Number: 2002-0000702} FROM: Marianne Lamont Horinko Aq ot L. Beh Acting Administrator TQ: Nikki Tinsicy Inspector General This memorandam transmits the Agency's consolidated response to the subject draft report (“Draft Report”}. With this memo, I formally request that EPA’s comments be included 2s part ot the final version of the official report. The unprecedented terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) and the enormity of its af ; ted kere an ety derretee arnyoue beakoewedboss ay ena meg response. While the Draft Report acknowledges the situation that the nation -- and New York iniote 7 City in particular -- confronted following the disaster, the nature of its criticisras, conclusions and recommendations de not reflect those circumstances. in fxet, thiy document is infected with the attitude that somehow “business as usual” conduct should have prevailed. Jam exceedingly proud of the response that the men and women of EPA made in the aftermath of the World Trade Center colispse. Along with other fret responders, our people were there within hours of the attack ard hundreds of our specialists devoted long hours under difficult conditions to provide assistance and information. EPA responded with its heart as well es its science to protect the health of the public and the workers involved in rescuc and recovery. In all, we took over 25,000 sampics and conducted a quarter of a miflion measurements of nearly 700 potential contaminants. EPA’s response was extraordinary, especially when examined in the chaotic context in which we and other governing bodies found ourselves, EPA began monitoring immediately for contaminants — without benchmarks or standards thet applied to the disaster situation such as ambient asbestos -- and we did it without electricity, in the midst of firefighting and reseue I 117 Report No. 2003-P-00012 NYC-WTC_000145648