Panel agenda for Air Quality After 9/11 conference, March 2004

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

responsibility draws on our decades of experience in cleaning up sites contaminated by toxins through prior practices or accidents.

"The expectation that EPA should be the lead agency for responding to indoor contamination has been clarified since September 11, 2001. The July 2002 National Strategy for Homeland Security issued by the Department of Homeland Security states that"

"After a major incident, the Environmental Protection Agency will be responsible for decontamination of affected buildings and neighborhoods and providing advice and assistance to public health authorities in determining when it is safe to return to these areas,"

The Inspector General's report concluded:

"For indoor environment concerns resulting from the collapse of the WTC towers, EPA had the authority to act under CERCLA but was not obligated to do so. Guidelines exist for determining whether an emergency response is warranted; however, these guidelines are not definitive. Under the NCP, it was within EPA's discretion to defer to New York City the responsibility for responding to indoor contamination concerns. EPA's action was consistent with the FRP, which is intended to supplement local government response.

"Although EPA acted within its discretion, a 1998 Presidential directive and the more recent National Strategy for Homeland Security task EPA with taking the leadership role in cleaning up building and other sites contaminated by chemical or biological agents as a result of an act of terrorism. EPA needs to work with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to determine the nature and form with which the Federal government should assume a more direct role in addressing indoor environment concerns, under what circumstances this direct role should occur, and the oversight mechanisms to be employed when local agencies undertake such responses. In the WTC case, the delay in providing a government-organized and adequately monitored cleanup in Lower Manhattan may have contributed to unnecessary exposures to asbestos and other pollutants by unprotected workers and residents.

When EPA abdicated its responsibilities regarding indoor contamination New York

officials in turn delegated the burden for detection and cleanup to affected landlords

and tenants.

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