Forwarded press release: NYC workforce health risks from WTC clean-up,

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

EPA - aaning rndoor residential spaces, but excluding workspaces."

The c.-ngressma^T today released three new findings:

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION (DEP) MISHANDLED MATTER The City DEP was illegally placed in charge of remediation of workspaces by the EPA. DEP, in turn, left the burden of common space cleanup to builci.ng owners and mangers, and of private workspaces to tenants. DEP sent an official request for environmental quality information from building owners and managers in February 2002.

However, Rep. Nadler announced that the results of a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request submitted by Joel Kupferman of the New York Environmental Law & Justice Project show that as of last month, DEP only possesses data from 218 downtown buildings. That is out of a total of approximately 1900 buildings — little more than 11%. They are all below Canal, ?nke and Allen Streets — the same arbitrary boundary used by EPA for its residential cleanup plan. Many of these responses are incomplete or Inadequate. For building owners or managers that did not respond, DEP has not issued a single citation.

EPA -'ID ABOUT KNOWING "WHO IS IN CHARGE" For sore than a year, the EPA has maintained that the City Department of Environmental protection (DEP) is in charge when it comes to cleaning up indoor workspaces. But, in sworn testimony given last month, the Assis rant Administrator of EPA, Marianne Horinko, admitted that Presiciential Decision Directive (PDD) 62, which dictates how the federal agencies are co respond to an act of terrorism, mandates that EPA must clean up insice buildings. The transcript from that deposition (Hugh B. Kaufrun v. US EPA, Jan. 6 2003) is as follows:

Question: Who an EPA, who is the individual who has the ultimate lead for t.,e cleanup of interiors? Is it you? Answfc-: Ultimately I suppose it would be Governor Whitman as the admi--. strator. Since I do report to her, I am certainly the lead on emer- a-ncy response.

Quesr;.on: Is .._eaning up the interiors an emergency response? Answaa: Yes, la is.

Ms. .^rinko’s testimony is a stark departure from previous statements made ry Adminr.strator Whitman, who said on PBS's Newshour back in April, "If L.-ere is an area where there is a 'hole, ' this is where it is, in response, because it's just a little murky here as to who has the respensibility. who is responsible for the cleanup."

TEST -ESULTS -1 ;D HEALTH AND ECONOMIC IMPACT ARE SERIOUS

The E?A has maintained since days after the collapse of the World Trade Cent-?:, that ate area is safe. Yet, today, Rep. Nadler introduced vict_.'*.3 to discuss test results, health and financial impacts, and other issu<^:;. relate:-' to EPA's false safety assurances and lack of action. For examp-e:

The e mployees -rf the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) , who work in txia Woolworth Building: A representative provided evidences of samplss that ware taken in three areas of the building, and showed asbestos readings of above 74,000 structures per square centimeters and as h-pn as 853,000 structures (although no amount of asbestos is considered safe, 100,000 structures and above is considered an 'asbestos emeresney'). All samples were taken by Detail Associates and sent to International .Asbestos Testing Labs.

A woiTuan who la yes outside lower Manhattan, but works at the Municipal Builcang: She said that she had no health problems prior to September 2

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