Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document The agency or agencies responsitis for testing and/or oversecing testing of Sampling methods to be used in analyzing indoor contamination; Benchmarks to be used in asseasing whether the indoor contamination pose a threat: Under what circumstances government-assisted cleanups are warranted; How these cleanups voll be funded: and The agency or agencies responsibie for communicating testing results and appropriate cleaning mstructians. Develop and publish oversight criteria and State and local ages:y reporting requirements for those agencies inveived in cleaning up buildings and other disasters. EPA Respanse: EPA disagrees that unprotected residents and workers may have experienced unnecessary exposures to asbestos or other pollutants as a resatt of delay in providing a government- organized and adequately monitored cleanup in Lower Manhattan. From the beginning, FEMA, New York City and State, as well as EPA provided edvice to resilents on cleanup methods (wet wiping/mopping, HEPA vacuuming} that has proven effective. In addition, residents with more than minimal dust, were urged to use professional, asbestos abatement cleaners. FEMA provided fisancial assistanes to residents to enable them ta eee xR relocate while cleanup was being done, and New York City provided guidance and reser ; velix cleanup requirements to building ewners. All this tock place in the absence of a “Government-organized cleanup.” Subsequent EPA studies show that the basic cleaning techniques that were recontnended were effective in reducing dust and raduciag dust to below health based benchmarks where these could be identified. In surmnary, EPA feels that the advice and assistence provided wes sufficient ta enable the affected population io With respect to the outside environment, EPA provided personal protective cquipment, repeatedly stated that workers at Ground Zero should use this equipment and were at greater risk than the surrounding population. Additionally, the Agency consistently eaised concerns over the use of protective cquipment to local officials. Additionally, EPA ee Appendix R repeatedly advised anyone with acute symptoms to consult with their physicians and [Note 15 acknowledged that sensitive populations. such az those with respiratory iJnesses might xeact differently than the general population, and iso should conenft theirs physicians. 4 123 Report No. 2003-P-00012 NYC-WTC_000145654