Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

We were unable to identify any EPA official who claimed ownership of EPA’s WTC press releases issued in September and early October 2001. When we asked the EPA Chief of Staff whether she could claim ownership of EPA’s early WTC press releases, she replied that she was not able to do so “because the ownership was joint ownership between EPA and the White House,” and that “final approval came from the White House.” She also told us that other considerations, such as the desire to reopen Wall Street and national security concerns, were considered when preparing EPA’s early press releases. The OCEMR Associate Administrator said of the September 16 release: “I did not feel like it was my press release.”

September 13 Press Release Also Revised to Eliminate Cautionary Statements

Cautionary statements in a draft version of the September 13,2001, press release (see Appendix H) were removed and replaced with more reassuring statements. For example, the second clause of the caption to the draft press release, which noted that EPA was testing for environmental hazards, was replaced with a statement reassuring the public about environmental hazards. Further, the press release did not contain a statement in the draft version that EPA considered asbestos hazardous in this situation. We were unable to locate any record that explained why the changes were made, and the OCEMR Associate Administrator did not recall ever having seen the draft. The major differences between the draft and the issued press release are shown in Table 2-5.

Table 2-5: Significant Changes to the September 13 EPA Press Release

tesaed Press Caption to press release: Revised caption to press release: EPA Initiating Emergency Response EPA Initiating Emergency Response Activities, Reassures Activities, Testing Terrorized Sites Public About Environmental Hazards For Environmental Hazards Preliminary results of EPA’s EPA is greatly relieved to have learned that there appears to sampling activities indicate no or be no significant levels of asbestos dust in the air in New York very low levels of asbestos. City,” said Administrator Whitman. “We are working closely However, even at low levels, EPA with rescue crews to ensure that all appropriate precautions considers asbestos hazardous in are taken. We will continue to monitor closely.” this situation and will continue to monitor and sample for elevated Public health concerns about asbestos contamination are levels of asbestos and work with the primarily related to long-term exposure. Short-term, low-level appropriate officials to ensure exposure of the type that might have been produced by the awareness and proper handling, collapse of the World Trade Center buildings is unlikely to transportation and disposal of cause significant health effects. EPA and OSHA will work potentially contaminated debris or closely with rescue and cleanup crews to minimize their materials. potential exposure, but the general public should be very reassured by initial sampling.

17 Report No. 2003-P-00012

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