DEP report on WTC vicinity building exterior assessments, Feb 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

February 28,2002 Department of Environmental Protection 59-17 Junction Boulevard Corona. New York 11368-5107 Kathleen Callahan, Director Division of Environmental Planning & Protection Joel A. Miele Sr., P.E. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Commissioner 290 Broadway, 2"'* Floor New York, New York 10007

Dear Ms. Callahan:

As you are aware, your agency, with assistance from the NYC Department of Environmental Protection and the NYS Department of Labor, performed site visits at buildings in the vicinity of the World Trade Center. These site visits were conducted in January and February 2002 to perform visual assessments of outdoor clean-ups conducted by building owners and to assess the presence of visible debris on building exteriors. These assessments were a follow-up to activities performed in October and November 2001.

The visual assessments disclosed that many buildings were free of debris and others had various amounts of debris with various dispersal patterns. The majority of buildings identified with debris included isolated areas of debris specifically at the perimeter of roofs, at the base of parapet walls and in gutters. Debris was also visible on horizontal surfaces on building facades. In some instances, building facades facing the street were cleaned while facades at the rear remained dirty.

The observed debris was characteristic of the debris from the impact of September 11,2001. The debris appears to have reformed into a dense caked mass. The uneven dispersal identified above was also evident in our limited sample collection. Samples collected from these buildings indicated that some of the samples were asbestos-containing material. Other samples did not disclose the presence of asbestos, while others had trace or below 1% asbestos­ containing material.

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