Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document ° EPA should define and clarify internal EPA organizational roles and responsibilities in responding to large-sasle disasters. This should include designating teams of Agency experts — at both the National and Regional level — that can be rgebilized wo quickly provide needed technical support during a response. These areas may include specialized sampling techniques, exposure modeling and essessment, and risk assessment. .* EPA should develop and improve health-related benchmarks that can be used fo assess health risk in emergencies (specific list recommesded} * EPA should develop an emergency quality assurance sarnpling pian to be used as a guidance for monitoring environmental conditions after a large-scale disaster. It should address monitoring objectives, sampling and analytic methods. and siting of monizars. EPA Response: With respect to the conclusion, EPA emphasizes that, at the WTC response, itcertainty did exercise its opiions and judgements on matters irwpacting human health and the Appendix R- environment and will continue to do so within the context of its authorities and its role [Note 27 under the Federal Response Plan. With respect to the recommendations, it should be recognized thar the Department of Homeland Seenrity loaks te EPA and other agencies to assist them in identification of potential tangets and critical infrastructure, In fact, BPA has slreaudy provided nich of the information recommended, to DHS. EPA collects the data under various legislative and regulatory progranis and uses it to develop approaches atid establish plans of action for protection of public health and safety in collaboration with State and local agencies. EPA gencrally agrocs with the other Chapter 7 i} 430 Report No. 2003-P-00012 NYC-WTC_000145661