EPA response to NYC regarding WTC indoor testing data, Aug

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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Councilman James F. Gennaro 250 Broadway, Room 1773 New York, New York 10007

Dear Councilman Gennaro;

This is in response to your letter of August 19, 2003 concerning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Indoor Air Residential Assistance Program (Program) related to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. In your letter you requested specific information to “help the City Council assess the testing and clean up of indoor spaces that were affected by the plume from the World Trade Center attack, and inform the City Council of any environmental and public health impacts, both long-term and short-term, attributed to the attack.”

The following are EPA’s responses to your specific inquiries regarding the Program:

1. Data that the EPA has obtained from building owners who conducted contamination testing of their respective buildings during the period immediately after 9/11 and conclusions drawn from that data. Please provide copies of any related reports or studies completed by the EPA, as well.

All of the information regarding building owners’ testing of their respective buildings as it relates to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center was provided to EPA by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) and can be found on the enclosed compact disc entitled NYC PEP Files WTC Clean-up. EPA was able to further confirm the presence of asbestos from this information. The NYCDEP contact regarding this information is Mr. Michael Gilsenan at (718) 595-4418. Please also find enclosed EPA’s interim final World Trade Center Background Study Report and World Trade Center Confirmation Cleaning Study.

2. Whether or not the EPA possesses documents that specify how many buildings in Manhattan were tested, and how many owners of these buildings checked the ventilation system, in particular?

In addition to the information referred to above, the enclosed table entitled Valid Whole Building Requests provides a list of all the buildings which were tested and/or the HVAC system was evaluated and, if necessary and requested by the building owner, cleaned under EPA’s Indoor Air Residential Assistance Program. All of these buildings were addressed by EPA only at the request of the building owner. EPA is not aware of how many owners of buildings independently checked their ventilation system.

3. The standards/protocols employed by the EPA to ensure the integrity and cleanliness of residential heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and whether or not these standards/ protocols were made available to residents?

Please find enclosed a copy of the procedures employed by the EPA to ensure the integrity and

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