March 2006 News Stories

Lower Manhattan Development Corp. Incident Alert, Michael Haberman, VP for Community Development, Lower Manhattan Development Corp., March 24, 2006

Earlier this afternoon, a worker employed by a Bovis subcontractor fell from a platform at the 130 Liberty St. site. The worker was transported to a local hospital by ambulance, where he is undergoing care. LMDC personnel were notified immediately by the site safety managers, and work was suspended for the remainder of the day. A thorough investigation of the incident is underway but there was no impact on the surrounding community. Our thoughts are with the worker and his family.

We were also notified today that one of our off-site air monitors detected an elevated level of silica on Monday. Although regulatory agencies were notified and work stopped while the problem was evaluated, we determined that the increase was not due to work at the site. This determination was made based on the following factors:

·        No work was taking place at the site that could have caused silica emissions.

·       Construction unrelated to 130 Liberty St. was underway on Monday immediately in front of the 1010 Fire House on Liberty St. The air monitor that detected the silica is located on the roof of the firehouse.

·        A very low level of silica was found at only one other air monitor – the air monitor located on our site immediately across the street from the fire house and in the area where the non 130 Liberty St. work was taking place. All of the other air monitors on and off the site did not detect any silica.

The EPA has reviewed our findings regarding the silica and has determined that work may proceed.

LMDC will be providing an update on the project to Community Board 1’s WTC Redevelopment Committee on April 10th

Michael Haberman
VP for Community Development
Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10006
212-587-9738

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Ease Path for EMS Deadline Near For 9/11 Disability Aid, by Ginger Adams Otis, Chief Leader, March 3, 2006

http://www.thechief-leader.com/news/2006/0303/News/002.html

Rescue workers who were injured, became sick or died during or after the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center site are being urged by the city to file a claim for funds available under the 9/11 Heroes Stamp Act..

The Act raised $10.5 million in aid by selling a limited edition 9/11 Heroes stamp featuring the image of three firefighters planting an American flag in the rubble of the Twin Towers.

Fund Run by Feds

The fund, administered jointly by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Fire Administration, is now accepting applications from eligible workers or their families. Al Conners, project manager for USFA, said all of the funds received from the Postal Service would be distributed equally among applicants.

The FDNY, along with other city law-enforcement and first-responder agencies, has been alerting its membership about the fund, but hit a paperwork snag with its Emergency Medical Service Bureau.

In a holdover from its days as a separate entity, the EMS Bureau's disability and pension are handled by the New York City Employees' Retirement System, not the Fire Pension Fund. While firefighters are entitled to unlimited sick leave, EMS employees must file Workers' Compensation claims to be paid while out injured or otherwise disabled unless they use their leave balances.

Not Always in Sync

The 9/11 Stamp Act applications require employers to fill out a section stipulating that the worker looking for aid is disabled. For EMS, the employer is NYCERS, which Thomas Eppinger, president of EMS Officers' Local 3621 of District Council 37, immediately realized was going to be a problem when FEMA alerted city agencies to the process last December.

"If [the process] went the route it was going to go, my members would not have been able to participate in this fund," he said.

The EMS bureau has many members who have been declared unfit for duty or given a medical discharge by FDNY doctors, but who have not been given a pension disability award from NYCERS. In some cases the claims were rejected and are being appealed, Mr. Eppinger said, and in other instances the worker had been labeled disabled by FDNY doctors, but had yet to start the lengthy NYCERS pension process.

Doubts About NYCERS

The Act doesn't stipulate that a rescue worker be awarded a disability pension before being able to apply for additional funds. Workers drawing Social Security or Workers' Compensation can apply, but their employer must still write on the application that they are disabled.

With some EMS cases being controverted, and others still pending, Local 3621 feared NYCERS would be reluctant to acknowledge a disability on some applications.

The union turned to the Fire Department, and after a few weeks of meetings between FDNY, FEMA and U.S. Fire Administration officials, a deal was worked out that allowed the department to sign off as the employer on EMS applications.

Deputy Assistant Chief for EMS Operations Jerry Gombo said "there was no question it was a cohesive, team effort. We met with FEMA, came up with an all-inclusive strategy, and the USFA was very open-minded in dealing with us."

The Uniformed Fire Officers' Association, Uniformed Firefighters' Association and numerous law-enforcement unions joined Local 3621 at the final meetings, he said, and were supportive. "It just goes to show you that when there's a set goal, and people work together, you can move mountains," he noted.

Fill in Blanks Later

FEMA also agreed to let disabled EMS workers and firefighters file incomplete applications in order to make the April 3 deadline. Candidates can submit the first two pages of the application, with supporting medical documentation, and indicate on their application that part four will be sent later by the FDNY. The FDNY has pledged to get all the paperwork done by the end of April.

"I'm happy to say that in the end we were able to work things out in a way that puts us on the level of other emergency services like firefighters and the police," Mr. Eppinger said.

Once an application has been approved, FEMA will ask recipients for bank account information to electronically transfer a one-time payment. The fund has a finite amount of money and plans to split it evenly among all approved claims. The fund has projected that if 1,000 applicants were approved, each would get $10,565. If 2,000 were approved, each would get $5,282. To date, FEMA has received 130 applications.

Contact Details

EMS personnel and firefighters wishing to apply should keep a copy of their application for their records, and send a copy of Part IV on page three and a notarized copy of page four to Alex Fisher at the FDNY Legal Office, 8N-5, 9 MetroTech Center, Brooklyn, 11201. Members should write name, address and Social Security number at the top of each page.

Family members of EMS workers or firefighters who were killed on 9/11 or became disabled and subsequently passed away should contact Suzanne Seibert, in the FDNY Family Assistance Unit, at 718-999-1473.

EMS personnel and firefighters who do not get their completed pages three and four returned to them from the FDNY by March 15 should send the rest of their application via certified mail to FEMA with a cover note explaining that the rest will be sent at a later date by the FDNY.

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City Council to Fault 9/11 Cleanup, by Anthony DePalma, New York Times, March 1, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/nyregion/01dust.html

The City Council is poised to reject the federal government's latest effort to clean apartments contaminated by dust from the collapse of the twin towers, calling the plan "technically and scientifically flawed."

In a resolution scheduled to be introduced today, the Council will join community groups, labor unions and the city's Congressional delegation in condemning the way the Environmental Protection Agency has handled environmental and health issues resulting from the destruction of the World Trade Center.

"We will never successfully rebuild Lower Manhattan until we can all be assured that we have successfully cleaned up Lower Manhattan," said Councilman Alan Jay Gerson, chairman of the Committee on Lower Manhattan Redevelopment, which held its first hearing Monday.

The resolution urges the federal agency to devise a new sampling and cleanup plan that includes both residences and workplaces in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.

The E.P.A. declined to testify at the committee hearing. But in an interview yesterday, Alan J. Steinberg, regional administrator, said the plan was based on sound science. But he said the agency was re-examining a proposal rejected by independent scientists last year to use a specific substance a type of insulation called slag wool that was used in the towers as a marker to indicate the presence of trade center dust. The results of that analysis should be completed early next month, he said.

The Council has no authority over the federal agency, but a resolution criticizing the cleanup plan would underscore growing dissatisfaction with federal efforts. Various cleanups have been undertaken since 9/11, but they have not calmed concerns about the effect of asbestos, lead, mercury and other dangerous substances from the towers.

Last year, the federal agency considered a new plan to sample and clean apartments and commercial buildings in an area from a few blocks north of Canal Street to the Brooklyn waterfront. But last year the agency dropped the broad sampling plan because the slag wool marker was rejected. Instead, it plans to clean only Manhattan apartments below Canal Street on request of the owner or resident.

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E.P.A. to Get. A Scolding On 9/11 Dust, by Anthony DePalma, New York Times, March 1, 2006 – the longer version of article above which appeared only in the print editions

The City Council is poised to reject, the federal government's latest effort to clean thousands of apartments contaminated by dust from the collapse of the twin towers, calling the plan "technically and scientifically flawed."

In a resolution scheduled to be introduced today, the Council will join community groups, labor unions and the city's Congressional delegation in condemning the way the Environmental Protection Agency has handled environmental and health is sues resulting from the destruction of the World Trade Center.

"We will never successfully rebuild Lower Manhattan until we can all be assured that we have successfully cleaned up Lower Manhattan," said Councilman Alan Jay Gerson, a Manhattan Democrat who is chairman of the new standing Committee on Lower Manhattan Redevelopment, which held its first hearing Monday afternoon.

The resolution urges the federal agency to devise a new sampling and cleanup plan that includes both residences and workplaces in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.

The E.P.A. declined to testify at the committee hearing. But in a telephone interview yesterday, Alan J. Steinberg, regional administrator, defended the plan, saying it was based on sound science.

But he said the agency was re-examining a proposal that was rejected by independent scientists last year to use a specific substance a type of building insulation called slag wool that was used in the towers as a marker to indicate the presence of trade center dust.

"In that context, we're also re-analyzing samples of dust from our inventory, and if we're able to successfully demonstrate that slag woof qualifies as a marker for trade center dust, we'll consider making adjustments to our plan," Mr. Steinberg said.

The results of that analysis should be completed early next month, he said.

The City Council has no authority over the federal agency, but a resolution criticizing the cleanup plan would underscore growing dissatisfaction with federal efforts.

Various cleanups have been undertaken taken since 9/11, but they have not calmed community concerns about the effect of asbestos, lead, mercury, and other dangerous substances from the towers that made their way into building interiors.

In the first decontamination program in the summer of 2002, about. 4,000 of the 23,000 apartments downtown were cleaned and tested.

Last year, the federal agency considered a new plan to sample and clean apartments and commercial buildings in an area stretching from a few blocks north of Canal Street to the Brooklyn waterfront.

But late last year the agency dropped the broad sampling plan because the slag wool marker was rejected. Instead, it plans to clean only apartments in Lower Manhattan below Canal Street on request of the owner or resident.

The agency has also dismantled a panel of scientific and health experts that had been advising it for most of. the previous two years. Testifying at Monday's hearing, a member of that panel, David M. Newman, distanced himself and the other members of the panel from the current plan.

"The 'test and clean' program cur rently being put forth by the E.P.A has not been discussed or approved by the panel," said Mr. Newman, an industrial hygienist with the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. "It is E.P.A's plan it is not the panel's plan."

Even now, four and a half years after the collapse, concerns about health effects have not abated. There have been frequent reports of first responders dying from diseases their families say are linked to their exposure at ground zero.

Doctors and scientists have declined to make a definitive link so far. But studies have shown that more than half of all first responders who worked at ground zero in the weeks after 9/11 have respiratory problems, and that the likelihood of more serious diseases developing in the future is high.

"There are thousands of people in Lower Manhattan today who are being slowly poisoned," said Representative Jerrold L. Nadler, a Manhattan Democrat, who has asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the E.P.A.'s handling of ground zero.

Mr. Nadler said the city "could yell and scream at the EPA., which they' haven't really done"

The city's own legal liability is great. Hundreds of firefighters, police officers and sanitation workers have claims against the city because they say their *health was jeopardized by their work at ground zero.

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