Letter re: EPA/DEP WTC dust cleanup at 114 Liberty Street,

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

3

The building was evacuated and not re-occupied because it was in the “frozen zone” where citizens had to show identification for entry. The building was also not re-occupied because of the structural damage, which was not repaired until late 2002/early 2003.

Decontamination prior to EPA/NYCDEP abatement Residents had some floors of the building individually abated during the months of November to December, 2001. At the end of December, 2001, the whole building was professionally abated again, and the windows were boarded up. This cleaning was not up to specifications, as it left pockets of visible WTC dust in spaces like cabinets.

EPA/NYCDEP building clean-up in March. 2003

The 114 Liberty St. building underwent an addition abatement in March, 2003 as part of the EPA voluntary WTC dust clean-up program. The residents negotiated a whole-building clean-up. As part of the agreement, EPA/NYCDEP contractors removed the drywall from the suspended ceiling ventilation air return system, and also removed one side of each wall so that the contaminated interior wall spaces were accessible for cleaning.

EPA/NYCDEP contractors cleaned the residential units two times, because testing after the first cleaning demonstrated that air levels were still unsafe.

Resident testing after EPA/NYCDEP clean-up After EPA/NYCDEP completed the two abatements, the residents performed their own additional testing. This was motivated by the fact that EPA/NYCDEP contactors had not abated areas of clearly visible dust in the exposed wall spaces and elsewhere.

Dusts underneath floorboards were also tested, because cracks in the floor boards had allowed lines of WTC dust to settle in visible lines both in and under these cracks, which were not removed by the abatements. It was feared that future vacuuming of the floors, impacts from foot traffic, contraction of the wood, or other normal activities would resuspend the dust lying in the cracks and under the floor boards. Residents had tried to get EPA/NYCDEP to address this contamination in the floorboards during the cleaning program, but EPA/NYCDEP refiased.

Residents had both wipe and microvacuum testing performed under the floorboards and on the horizontal surfaces of the exposed wall and ceiling support systems. Note that wipe sampling is the preferred method for testing for residual asbestos or other dust-laden contaminants on smooth surfaces which have been cleaned with any wet wiping or washing techniques. The quantitative wipe method for asbestos is ASTM Method 6480, and was the method used by EPA in its 110

NYC-WTC_000154978