DEP activities memo regarding WTC cleanup coordination, undated

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

NYC DEP Contributions to Post September 11 Recovery Efforts

The NYCDEP, in conjunction with USEPA and FEMA developed the Downtown Reassurance Program to restore public confidence in Lower Manhattan. The key components of the program were:

• Establishment of an EPA hotline • Direct assistance to residents and residential building owners for clean-up or testing of their spaces as requested • Cleaning of unoccupied, uncleaned buildings • Clean-up of exterior buildings with residual World Trade Center debris • Clean-up of HVAC systems/Exhaust ducts identified as having World Trade Center debris • Creation of a database of environmental testing results and clean-up activities • Pilot building cleaning to assess cleaning techniques • Background study of levels of potential concern

Deputy Commissioner Robert C. Avaltroni assisted me in the negotiations that resulted in the comprehensive plan and was given the sole responsibility of ensuring that the program was successful and timely. Starting in May 2002, D/C Avaltroni and his team. Assistant Commissioner Michael Gilsenan of the Bureau of Environmental Compliance and Rajappan Radhakrishnan, Director of the Asbestos Control Program, developed a flexible working plan that consisted of multiple tasks ongoing concurrently. This plan allowed these projects to start and finish in an orderly process.

Foremost on the team’s mind was that all work done was as protective of the public as possible. To this end, a professional working team relationship was developed with US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 2. The environmental expertise that EPA brought to the project was indispensable. It was able to develop thresholds in the interior environment for containments that previously did not exist in that arena. DEP’s extensive working knowledge of asbestos issues also contributed to the development of the asbestos threshold.

Secondly, DEP had to ensure that monies allocated for this project by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was spent wisely. DEP was able to gain FEMA’s confidence with its well thought-out and accurate cost projections for each and every project undertaken. FEMA’s confidence in DEP’s numbers was such that, throughout the project, EPA was required to receive DEP’s approval of their expenditures above and beyond the initial project work plan. The working relationship between FEMA and DEP is a model for government partnerships, the end result being that the public benefits.

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