Memo re: DEP outdoor asbestos air monitoring, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Manhattan, the combined sewers serving that area lead to a very large pumping station at on East 13*^ St. From there, the sewage is pumped into a pipe that goes under the East River to Greenpoint, Brooklyn where the sewage is treated at the Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant.

DEP routinely samples raw sewage going into the Newtown Creek plant, and treated effluent coming out of Newtown Creek, several times a day. We also regularly take samples from open waters at various locations in New York Harbor, including off the Battery. DEP tests these samples for “conventional parameters,” such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, suspended solids and coliform. These conventional parameters have remained within their normal range since September 11^*’.

Using the more sophisticated testing capabilities that EPA has its disposal, beginning September 11* their staff immediately began running tests for “unconventional parameters” on samples of Ground Zero run-off, harbor waters, and sewage. These unconventional parameters include PCB’s, dioxin, asbestos and other organic chemicals and contaminants that the City’s marine water quality laboratories do not routinely test for. Initial runoff samples taken from Rector Street showed elevated levels of PCB’s, dioxin, asbestos and metals. Follow-up samples showed concentrations of these substances below levels of concern. Samples of water taken from the harbor, and samples of effluent from the Newtown Creek plant also show the presence of “unconventional parameters” at levels too low to be of concern.

Finally, let me reassure all New Yorkers that continuous sampling of the drinking water supply at the reservoirs, in the aqueducts, and within the City’s distribution system have shown all contaminant levels to be within the normal range, and below levels of concern.

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