EPA memorandum on WTC dust wipe sampling and cancer risk

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

TO 917185954544 P.03/08 JUL-29-2002 17=52 FROM US EPA REGION 2 ORC

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indoor air contaminants in residences north of 59*’* Street, which were not affected by the collapse of the WTC, so that such data may be compared with data obtained in residences in lower Manhattan. The contractor is in place for this study, and access has been granted for some of the samplmg locations. Third, EPA, along with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP), is providing for the monitoring and cleaning of lower Manhattan residences tln ough the Indoor Air Residential Assistance Program - World Trade Center (WTC) Dust Cleanup. Pursuant to interagency agreements under the Stafford Act, FEMA is providing or will provide funds to the city, which used its emergency contracting authority to enter into contracts for a hotline contractor to register residents for the indoor dust cleaning program, and will be contracting with certified asbestos cleanup contractors to professionally clean apartments, as well as with Project Monitors to oversee the cleaning contractors. The actual cleaning and monitoring will be carried out by NYCDEP contractors, under the direction and oversight of EPA, in coordination with the city. FEMA and EPA are in the process of entering into an interagency agreement to support EPA’s activities in this program.

We will evaluate the information and data that we gather in the Confinnation Study and the Background Study, as well as the results of a peer review of a draft technical document on World Trade Center Contaminants of Potential Concern, as the cleaning and monitoring activities proceed. We will use these data to determine whether any program adjustments or modifications are needed. As we have discussed, this approach of conducting studies and cleanups in parallel is nccessaiy because of the scientific complexities of dealing with indoor environments and the need for timely response to the potential threat to public health and welfare. We have limited indoor sampling protocols, health benclunarks, background data for urban areas (especially Manhattan), correlations of dust to air exposures, etc. We are using cleanup methods effective for asbestos and fibrous materials and expect that These will be effective for any other particulate matter that may pose health concerns. We will do sampling for airborne asbestos in every' residence we are asked to clean or test, but we will also do sampling for metals and dioxin in a subset of spaces. This will give us infonnation on additional substances of potential concern. If the study work we are doing indicates that we need to modify our cleanup approach, we will do so. But at this time we feel it is appropriate to begin to clean residential spaces.

As you are aware, under the Indoor Air Residential Assistance Program -WTC Dust Cleanup, lower Manhattan residents will be given the option of requesting either cleaning followed by sampling, or sampling alone. To date, more than 3,500 residents have requested one or the other option.

Relationship of the Indoor Air Residential Assistance Program to the National Contingency Plan

You have asked whether the Indoor Air Residential Assistance Program - WTC Dust Cleanup will be conducted in a manner consistent with the NCP. As I noted in my April 25

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