NYC-WTC_000195741

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

New York City has suffered in many ways as a result of September 11, not least financially. A budget deficit of $4 billion is forecast for next year, and City agencies are being forced to make reductions and sacrifices to keep minimal services at acceptable levels. The City may also have future financial costs to face. By providing residents with inappropriate guidance regarding apartment cleaning, the city may amass huge contingent liabilities. Similarly, New York State, by providing incentives for individuals to move into Lower Manhattan (via the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation) —at a time when the area may not be safe—may also be accruing these liabilities.

It is evident from agency testimony and the City’s documented fiscal frailty that it would be unreasonable to expect it to underwrite the tremendous cost of testing and cleaning every building contaminated in Lower Manhattan. This large-scale undertaking is one that only can be accomplished by the federal government. It is also morally right for the federal government to assume the cost.

The Citizens of Lower Manhattan - residents, workers and building owners -- have been victims of a terrorist attack on this nation, and should not bear the burden of making their homes, offices, and businesses safe again President Bush has said repeatedly that “This attack was one perpetrated on America.” Why should New York City or its citizenry, which already have borne so much sorrow, also have to bear the cost of an obligatory cleanup? Administrator Whitman must ensure the victims of 9/11 who live and work in downtown Manhattan what she told the residents of Libby, Monana; that she would provide a legal guarantee "that will protect them from EPA's ever seeking to have them assume the costs of cleanup"

It is utterly absurd that the federal government would pay for removal costs if a steel beam from the World Trade Center fell into a home or workplace, but not so if that same beam were broken into a million pieces because of an explosion due to the same attack. This is not the intent of federal laws and policies.

When the EPA engages in such a testing and remediation program, it must do so utilizing the best science, techniques, and equipment and the strictest health-based standards to call indoor environments “safe.” The EPA and the entities to which it has inappropriately delegated authority have already been found to use approaches that are less than adequate. New York deserves the highest level of treatment, just as EPA’s own building and other areas of the country have received.

In mid-February, Administrator Whitman announced a new EPA plan to establish a Task Force on Indoor Air in Lower Manhattan, "working with our local, state, and federal partners.Shortly thereafter. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the formation a city-wide Lower Manhattan Air Quality Task Force and telephone hotline. In the past two months, there has been little action made by these entities. On March 25, the

Whitman, Christine Todd, EPA Administrator, “Remarks of Governor Christine Todd Whitman, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, at a Town Hall Meeting,” Libby, Montana, September?, 2001. ’’’Letter from Christine Todd Whitman to Senator Hillary Clinton, Feb. 12,2002.

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