NYC-WTC_000199639

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

At Lancinu Remains Gathered IIS In Dignity Ry Melanie Lefkowitz STAFF WRITER The “missing” posters are three months gone from the bus shelters and phone booths of Manhattan. But photos of those lost on Sept. 11 still line the wood-pnnelcd wnlla of the evidence trailer nt the Fresh Kills landfill, where each day they remind 300 detec­ tives sifting through World 'Trade Center debris of the importance of their task. Items like jewelry, wallets, ID cards, passports and paperwork have passed from Ground Zero to barges to piles of dcbri.s to mcchnnicnl sifters to conveyor belts to this room, where they wait to be decontaminated and cross-referenced against a list of names. “This is a special place,” said Chief of Detectives Will­ iam Allee. “We’ve created something where we can go through this process with dignity.” As of yesterday, 46 people had been identified through DNA analysis of remains found on the landfill .site, with more identifications expected soon, Allee said. Nearly 1 million tons of debris have been pro­ • Newsday Photo/Julia Gaines ___ cessed to date. ID cards found in Ilie debris al Fresh Kills are sorted alphabelically. Workers have searched painstakingly lor such items. The officials who run operations at the newly winter­ ized landfill, shown to reporters yesterday, agree that » x»

spSKSeaSiS Expert: Mercury Exposure Brief wK'.SSXSrSrterS&g: By Graham Rayntan “It’s still unclear what’s causing it,” said John Mc- Ausland, the counsel for the Port Authority Patrol­ successful collaboration between the NYt’D, the FBI, staff writer the Environmental Protection Agency, the Secret Ser­ An expert in mercury toxicity said the critical pe­ men’s Benevolent Association. “The Port Authority vice and several other city, state and federal agencies. riod for exposure to mercury vapor at Ground Zero is continuing to test the employees and has acted re­ But perhaps most of all, thank the weather. occurred on Sept. 11 and in the first few days after sponsibly.” “When it rains up here, it’s awful. When the weath­ the attacks. Haley said Ground Zero workers who labored at er’s good, production goes up,” said Lt. Bruce Bovino, Boyd Haley, a University of Kentucky chemistry pro­ the site in the early days may want to consider hav­ -econd-in-command at the site, which is run by Deputy fessor, said the shattering of thousands of fluorescent ing themselves tested. “If that was my son working Inspector James Luongo. “It’s God. . . . Ask anybody light bulbs, light switches and computer screens in the down there, you can bet that I would have him test­ who’s been up here — the weather’s been so good, we World Trade Center complex would have released mer­ ed,” Haley said. ■ . can only attribute it to God.” cury vapor into the air from the sealed tubes. He said each fluorescent light bulb would have Right now, Bovino said, workers at the landfill are “it wouSl have been highest on Sept. 11, and then it contained 25 to 65 milligrams of mercury. The heat about three days behind those at Ground Zero. But as- of the fire and explosion on Sept. 11 would have ac­ mining operations at Ground Zero slow down, cleanup would definitely decrease over time,” said Haley, who has researched mercury toxicity for the past 14 years. celerated the conversion to vapor. O md sifting could finish on the same day, he said. The initial environmental tests for mercury H Detectives, clad in 'Tyvek suits and respirators, work Last week, the Port Authority reassigned four po­ in shifts from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. each day. During the four lice officers at Ground Zero because of elevated mer­ began on Sept. 16, five days after the collapses. Bon­ ■ hours that work halts, Allee said, the equipment is cury levels in their blood. nie Bellow, a spokeswoman for the Environmental I A Port Authority police lieutenant and a building Protection Agency, said air and dust samples taken ro cleaned and checked and the roads repaved. maintenance worker who labored at the command on Sept. 16, 18, 26 and Oct. 8 showed “non-detect­ Closed to city trash in March 2001, the landfill re- opened Sept. 12 to deal with the debris. center on West and Warren streets also showed sim­ able levels” around Ground Zero. “This is an area that was available to us, this is an ilar test results, a union official said. Similarly, tests conducted by the Occupational irea that we could secure, and as far as I’m concerned It wa.s not entirely clear that the exposure was Health and Safety Administration during the past o I llis is the best place,” Allee said. “I’m tired of hearing from Ground Zero. A follow-up test on the first four 12 days showed no detection for mercury, except for 1° ibout how people are coming to a dump. This isn’t a officers later showed normal levels, a Port Authori- one sample of 10 taken on Jan. 3, according to lump. This is sacred ground.’ ty spokesman said. OSHA. o to Ui cn cn W Ui

NYC-WTC_000199639