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

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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because cleaning of the enclosed spaces behind walls and above ceilings would cost more than rebuilding. The following press stories describe the situation:’’® The bank says in court papers that the building is too badly contaminated with toxic materials like asbestos and mercury to ever be reoccupied

But Deutsche Bank has said that the main reason the building could not be reoccupied was because of contamination from dust spiked with asbestos and other contaminants. It wrote in its claim that the building was subject to tornado-force winds, earthquake-like shaking and pressure waves that forced dust into "every crack and crevice" in the building.

The bank has taken tens of thousands of samples from the building and told insurers that it is too contaminated to reoccupy.

The bank stated in a lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan that tornado-force winds from the fallen 110- story towers distributed asbestos and other contaminants throughout the building, making it impossible to safely repair.

EPA claimed resident's testing irrelevant to health risks Although acknowledging that dust testing was useful in determining abatement effectiveness, EPA/NYCDEP dismissed the residents’ asbestos dust testing as being irrelevant to showing that there were any risks from, or hazards associated with the high levels of asbestos in the dust after the cleanings at 114 Liberty. Their 8/4/03 joint letter stated: Based on the results that were received [ffum the residents at 114 Liberty], it appears that eleven wipe samples and sixteen microvacuum samples were collected by Ambient Group Inc. and analyzed by EMSL Analytical Inc. for asbestos.

The interpretation of these results is constrained by the scientific uncertainty regarding the potential for the measured concentrations in settled dust to become airborne. There are no standards currently available for assessing potential health consequences from asbestos through the evaluation of wipe or microvacuum samples.... EPA's use of surface wipe and microvacuum sampling at its WTC Residential Confirmation Cleaning Study site (110 Liberty St.) was intended to provide a measure of the cleaning effectiveness, and not a risk-based health assessment.

EPA Region 2 used dust testing as the sole basis for determining there was an asbestos risk in need of professional abatement at their own 290 Broadway building in Manhattan The claim by EPA Region 2 that settled dust testing cannot be related to risks, and that only air testing is valid to project health effects from asbestos, is directly contradicted by their own actions in the wake of 9/11.

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