DEP project narrative request for fact-checking and updating, November 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

NYC DEP Completes Downtown Cleanup In October [DATE], the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officially wrapped up a five-month [CHECK] effort to remove potentially hazardous dust and debris that had accumulated on the roofs, windows and facades of downtown buildings following the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse. The project was both a feat of labor and logistics with DEP crews working around the clock and making every accommodation possible to minimize the disruption to area residents, businesses and institutions as they cleaned more than 1.8 million [CONFIRM] square feet of exterior building space.

Beginning last winter [MONTH?], the DEP set about inspecting buildings in the area for exterior residue containing more than 1 percent of asbestos, the threshold amount set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Labor, New York State and the DEP. In tests conducted on a small sample of downtown buildings in close proximity to the WTC site, 40 percent tested positive for asbestos contamination, prompting the DEP to commence a comprehensive inspection of the more than one thousand buildings in the area.

“There was a great degree of anxiety among people in Lower Manhattan,” said Robert Avaltroni, deputy commissioner of the DEP. “We felt that we needed to act quickly to relieve that anxiety in order to help people who live and work in the area move forward with their lives.”

When the full inspection was complete, the DEP found the problem to be somewhat smaller than preliminary tests had suggested. Of the 1,072 buildings the DEP inspected, 315 - less than 30 percent - tested positive for asbestos contamination and were earmarked for cleaning.

The DEP conducted outreach to the owners of the affected buildings to notify them of the need for cleanup, giving them the option to have the work done by the DEP or through an independent contractor of their own choosing. The owners of 95 buildings elected to have their buildings cleaned independently. The DEP later re-inspected these buildings and certified that all asbestos­ containing material had been removed.

DEP cleanup crews went into action beginning June 3 and worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week with the exception of holidays and days when inclement weather made cleaning unsafe. When the cleanup concluded on October [DATE], DEP contractors had cleaned 136 [UPDATE NUMBER] buildings totaling 1,8XX,XXX square feet of building space. DEP crews used various means to reach building surfaces, including cherry pickers, scaffolds and platforms, and cleaned these surfaces using high-pressure spray-guns as well as by hand.

“We went into every crevice and every comer of the buildings we cleaned,” said Avaltroni. “Wherever we saw debris, we removed it.”

Liz Berger, a long-time resident and employee in the area, is very appreciative of the effort put forth by the City and the DEP. “The City and the DEP were genuinely interested in understanding the issue and solving the problem,” said Berger. “Thanks to their efforts, I feel much better in the apartment where I live and in the building where I work.”

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