NYC-WTC_000195741

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

We reluctantly made our own rules, divined from press reports, high school science as we remembered it and the advice of friends and neighbors. But even that was mixed. One scientist friend had his apartment tested and declared it safe for his family; the managing agent of his building, however, reported high levels of asbestos and lead. In the end, 248 stuffed animals, 8 handmade baby quilts, 5 mattresses, a trousseau’s worth of sheets and towels, a kitchen&I of food and 13 leaf- and-lawn bags of toys went into our trash, but not our books, draperies and upholstered furniture or our clothes, though the bill to dry clean them industrially was $16.500 . ... We washed the walls, but didn’t repaint. Some people we know repainted, but kept their mattresses. Some people kept their stuffed animals but threw away their furniture. Some people kept what they couldn’t bear to lose and got rid of the rest. We have still not decided what to do about our floors: will stripping, sanding and resealing them contain the toxic mix of asbestos, fiberglass, concrete, human remains, heavy metals and the vague “particulates,” or just release more of it into our indoor air?^'

As the responsibility for indoor private spaces has been left to individual residential and commercial tenants, so too have been the associated costs. It has been estimated that a professional remediation for hazardous materials in an average apartment in Lower Manhattan would cost $10,000 to $30,000, and that does not include the cost of testing.“ Covering the cost of testing and remediation in indoor private spaces would necessarily come from one of three sources: the tenant’s own pocket, private insurance (if available), or a government or relief agency.

An expense of $10,000 to $20,000 is terribly burdensome, if not prohibitive, for individual tenants (and particularly residents) if it must come out of their own pockets. Therefore, where no other funds were available for proper testing or remediation, tenants either did not remediate or did not remediate properly.® In some cases, residents who had nowhere else to turn financially, accepted help from volimteer college students and members of the Southern Baptist Convention.®^ These untrained volunteers came into downtown apartments and clffanftd.jising methnd.s a-S nr legg gafp than fbp! dangernns; NYC DOH guidelines, and did so vrithout proper nrotective gear.®^ To the extent that

^'Berger, Elizabeth (resident), “Testimony before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air, Wetlands, and Climate Change,” February 11,2002. “ EPA National Ombudsman First Investigative Hearing on World Trade Center Hazardous Waste Contamination,” February 23, 2002, Testimony of Jeff Micheli and David Harvey, Tradewinds Environmental, p. 105-106. “ Statement taken from Constituent Services Staff Members, Office of Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY- 08) and “Official Transcript,” EPA National Ombudsman First Investigative Hearing on World Trade Center Hazardous Waste Contamination,” February 21, 2002. See for example testimony from Dawn Pryor, resident, p. 183-196. Cowan, Alison Leigh, “Doing Good Deeds, and Windows,” New York Times, December 4, 2001 and Conley, Chris, “Dade Sends Help to New York City,” Dade County Sentinel, October 31,2001. “ Missouri Baptists Press Release, “Missouri Disaster Relief Works Assist in New York Cleanup,” November 20, 200. Website address: www. Mobaptist.org/releases/2001/nycleanup.htm. (Note particularly pictures of workers without proper protective gear).

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NYC-WTC_000195754