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Air Today . . . Gone Tomorrow Article
Feds' WTC Plan Scrubs
Cleanup for Downtown
By Sam Smith, New York Post, November
14, 2004
The federal government doesn't want to do any more windows — even if they're still
contaminated from the World Trade Center attacks.
Three years after the Twin Towers' collapse and eight months after convening an expert
panel to plan further 9/11 cleanups, the Environmental Protection Agency is offering a new
proposal to test for hazardous material downtown — but it doesn't include a cleanup
plan.
That's a change from the agency's previous approach to downtown contamination — and,
critics say, a fatal flaw.
"There has to be a commitment from the EPA that there will be proper cleanup
afterwards," said Catherine McVay Hughes, a downtown resident and member of the
expert panel, which also included scientists and government employees.
"With no guarantee, I would not participate, and I don't think smart New Yorkers
would."
Besides, critics say, the $7 million plan the EPA proposes isn't comprehensive enough
anyhow.
"It took $30 million just to test the Deutsche Bank building [next to Ground
Zero]," said a city union official briefed on the plan last week. "This won't
pay for representative sampling."
Like the EPA, the city is also balking at a further cleanup. Fearing the
multimillion-dollar expense and possible lawsuits, city officials are pushing the EPA not
to test for lead in its search for more hazardous materials, said members of the EPA
expert panel who asked not to be identified.
Lead is a contaminant the city Department of Health must, by law, ensure is cleaned.
The Fire Department has told the panel that it won't let its downtown firehouses be tested
if the feds won't commit to a cleanup, said attendees at a recent panel meeting.
"Finding the problem is only part of what has to be done," said Phil McArdle of
the Uniformed Firefighters Association, who believes that the FDNY should accept the
testing.
EPA spokesman Michael Brown said it's "presumptuous" to talk of a cleanup if
nobody is sure yet what contamination still exists.
"We don't even know if there will be anything to clean," Brown said, adding the
agency wants to test first and then "work with FEMA and the city of New York to
determine who precisely is responsible for cleanup."
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/34094.htm
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