MEETINGS M. Gilsenan

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

*** DRAFT *** 25 February 2002 Proposal for Expanded Lower Manhattan Environmental Task Force Since 11 September, the City has marshaled agency expertise and state and federal resources to respond to environmental, health, and safety issues resulting from the attacks on the World Trade Center. From day one, OEM directed that daily meetings be held to share information and assign responsibilities. The immediate focus was on the agencies responding to various aspects of the disaster. Now, nearly six months later, the frequency of most of these meetings has lessened, but the need for information remains strong, especially with the public, elected officials, and the press.

In recognition of this, the Mayor has asked that OEM spearhead a task force of City agencies with expertise on environmental, health, and safety matters to restore confidence and to coordinate public information efforts about the status of Lower Manhattan. Reassuring residents, businesses, and workers that the air is safe and that other environmental issues are being addressed in a timely manner is essential to the rebuilding and revitalization process. OEM has convened a task force of City agencies to coordinate lower Manhattan environmental and health activities, along the lines of the task forces for West Nile Virus Prevention/Control and Rodent Control. The task force will inform the deputy mayors of critical issues as the effort progresses.

Expanded Task Force Proposal It is essential that the City speak with one voice about conditions in lower Manhattan. A false perception exists that we are not doing much on environmental matters in this area. We propose that the task force be given a mandate and resources to: • quickly establish a hotline for all lower Manhattan environmental and health matters • retain professional firms to disseminate a consistent message in various forums to City agencies, other governmental entities, the press, and the public • serve as a clearinghouse for environmental monitoring data and share it with the public in terms understandable to a lay person • determine how best to refute misleading data being circulated • serve as a liaison with state and federal agencies and elected officials

We propose that the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development lead this confidence-building initiative in initial announcements of its existence. A kickoff event involving the Mayor and perhaps Senator Clinton would do much to gamer attention and express the high importance of this endeavor.

Major Proposed Activities • Hotline The task force is presently working to establish a hotline to provide information to residents, businesses, workers, visitors, parents, etc. on issues of air quality, risk, cleaning of buildings. Feature all agencies’ environmental testing results (such as daily DEP asbestos update, EPA, ATSDR, NIOSH data); interpret these results; and provide links to other testing information. Five people each from DEP and DOH could serve as staff, and additional computer/database

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