NY Pans Another EPA 9-11 Plan, by Kristen Lombardi, Village Voice, December 6, 2006

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/003163.php

It seems the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has done it again, offering yet another false assurance to New Yorkers about fallout from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. At least, that's how many people who live and work in downtown Manhattan have come to view the agency's latest announcement. This afternoon, the EPA unveiled what it is calling the "final phase" in its response to the 9/11 environmental fallout—a new plan to test for toxic dust from the World Trade Center disaster.

The plan isn't exactly new, however. Indeed, it mirrors a proposal the EPA had first announced in November 2005, one that residents, office workers, and activists had panned as inadequate. Back then, the agency had released what was billed as the final plan to test for and clean up lingering Trade Center dust—a $7 million effort limited to residences below Canal Street. With that plan, the agency had taken a sudden turn after months of debate on the matter, scaling back an earlier version, tossing advice from its expert panel and nixing nearly every promise to the downtown community.

Hours before the agency's announcement today, activists long bent on pushing the EPA to do the right thing and clean up downtown were gearing up for the worst. And they pretty much got it. Already, critics have ticked off the same complaints about this new plan that they had ticked off before: It is underfunded (at $7 million, again); it abides by an arbitrary geographic boundary (south of Canal Street and west of Allen Street, again); and it remains limited to residences (excluding workplaces unless a landlord consents, again). About the only thing the new plan does is to test for such toxins as fiberglass, asbestos, lead, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. EPA officials say they will give priority to those who live or work in buildings located closest to the World Trade Center site; residents and landlords will have two months beginning in January to register for the program.

As far as critics are concerned, the agency's new plan amounts to an exercise in futility.

"This plan is clearly unacceptable," says Kimberly Flynn, of the 9/11 Environmental Action, one of the most active groups on the issue. Flynn points out that the current plan is effectively the same one rejected by not just the agency's expert panel, but also the New York City Council and all three Lower Manhattan community boards. "The EPA has had a year to enact the recommendations of the community," she says, "and the EPA has not done so. And so here we are. We're stuck with a poor plan."

In announcing the plan, EPA officials acknowledged that not much had changed about the clean up program in the past 12 months. They explained the year-long delay in implementing the program to attempts to further develop a so-called signature, or marker of Trade Center dust. Officials had decided to re-examine the proposed signature, consisting of slag wool, mostly, an insulation used in the towers. But that effort failed. So, as George Gray, of EPA's Office of Research and Development, put it in a telephone conference call with local reporters on Wednesday, "We believe it's now time to implement this plan of action." Though Gray made a point to stress that, "The vast majority of residences and commercial spaces have been repeatedly cleaned and the amount of lingering dust is likely small, so the potential for exposure is likely small."

Downtown activists see things differently. "It's yet another false assurance following all the other false assurances we've had over the years," charges Suzanne Mattei, of the Sierra Club, whose New York City offices are located on John Street, just blocks from where the twin towers once stood.

Right after the terrorist attacks, the EPA told New Yorkers conditions were safe when in fact they were not. Five years later, thousands of people have gotten sick, and thousands more remember how the dust blanketed their neighborhoods. The growing number of blood cell cancers among rescue and recovery workers who shifted through rubble at the Trade Center site has some scientists talking about the beginnings of a 9/11 cancer cluster.

EPA officials insist that this final plan is just that, the last of a series of attempts meant to give people who live and work downtown some "peace of mind." Said Alan Steinberg, the EPA regional administrator, during the press call: "I understand the uncertainties and the frustration that have resulted from the aftermath of 9/11. All I can say is that we believe we've acted in a very deliberative and considerate way to address the concerns."

That, of course, remains up for debate. Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who represents ground zero and who has led the fight to hold the EPA accountable for its response to the 9/11 fallout, suggested the debate wasn't over yet when he blasted the agency for its weak program, which he described as "another slap in the face to the residents and workers of Lower Manhattan. Nadler made sure to note the change in political power in Congress come January, vowing, "A Democratic Congress will hold the EPA accountable."

In other words, stay tuned.

Copyright © 2006 Village Voice Media, Inc.

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EPA announces dust sampling plan in NYC, by Heather Moyer, Disaster News Network, December 6, 2006

http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.php?articleid=3400

A new testing and cleanup plan for residences and businesses affected by the dust from the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11 was announced Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

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EPA To Begin Final WTC Health Dust Testing In 2007, WNBC, December 6, 2006

http://www.wnbc.com/health/10476613/detail.html

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it will launch its final Sept. 11 contamination cleanup program next month, more than five years after the attacks and following years of criticism the agency still has not done enough.

The $7 million cleanup will test indoor spaces below Canal Street, west of Allen and Pike streets, and will allow residents and building owners to have the air and dust in their living spaces tested for four contaminants linked to debris from the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.

The four contaminants are asbestos, man-made fibers like fiberglass, lead, and polycyclic armoatic hydrocarbons.

The testing program's two-month registration period will begin in January, officials said.

"It is time to begin this final phase in EPA's response to the terrorist attacks of September 11," the agency's regional administrator, Alan Steinberg, said in a statement.

"The vast majority of occupied residential and commercial spaces in lower Manhattan have been repeatedly cleaned, and we believe the potential for exposure related to dust that may remain from the collapse of the World Trade Center building is low," said EPA official Dr. George Gray.

Officials could not say whether the new testing and cleaning program would be larger or smaller than the EPA effort in 2002 and 2003, which visited more than 4,000 units. They said the amount of testing and cleanup would depend largely on how many people call the agency's hot line to sign up for testing, but noted the cleanup cost is expected to be about $4 per square foot.

The announcement comes a day after the incoming head of the Senate Environment Committee, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said she would push for full health coverage for ground zero workers sickened by their time at the disaster site.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, both Democrats, have led a chorus of New York lawmakers complaining that the EPA did not live up to its responsibilities to protect public health in the hours, days, and months after Sept. 11.

Clinton said she would use her new position as chair of an environmental subcommittee under Boxer to push the agency for more testing and cleaning.

"EPA has now acknowledged that additional testing is necessary, but the program announced today is totally inadequate," Clinton said in a statement.

The issue has also spawned an ongoing federal lawsuit against the EPA and then-administrator Christie Todd Whitman.

Nadler angrily dismissed the testing plan announced Wednesday.

"It's the same crap, the same phony cleanup, like the phony cleanup they did back in 2002," fumed Nadler, whose district includes the ground zero site.

He has long argued that the testing area in lower Manhattan is arbitrary and doesn't reflect how far the dust traveled.

"We now have a Democratic majority in the Congress, and we will be holding hearings about this," Nadler said.

Clinton has called the EPA's new testing plan "incredibly frustrating and disappointing" because it does not expand the area tested. She charges that the agency "is essentially throwing up its hands and washing them of this problem."

The lawmakers' fight with the administration on 9/11 health matters began after the EPA asserted within days of the terrorist attacks that the dust from 1.8 million tons of World Trade Center debris posed no public health threat.

An inspector general's investigation concluded those assurances were issued after the agency was pressured by White House officials.

© 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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9/11 Cleanup to Resume, E.P.A. Says, by Anthony DePalma, New York TImes, December 7, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/nyregion/07clean.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

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