FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Kimberly Flynn, 9/11 Environmental Action, 917-647-7074
Suzanne Mattei, Sierra Club, 212-791-3600, ext. 35

GROUND ZERO COMMUNITY URGES ANSWER FROM EPA BEFORE ELECTION: CITES ANNIVERSARY OF WHITE HOUSE COMMITMENT TO CONSIDER TESTING AND CLEANUP OF 9/11 CONTAMINATION

Approaching the one-year anniversary of the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s agreement to have an expert panel provide advice on unmet needs related to 9/11 pollution, a coalition of community, tenant, environmental, small business, religious and labor organizations sent a letter today to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Their letter pleads for a clear answer now – before the upcoming federal election – on what action the federal government will take to clean up 9/11 contamination and meet the health needs of the people exposed to the pollution. The letter sets out seven basic principles for cleanup and for addressing long-term health needs. (The letter is attached.)

“The White House forced us to wait two years before it would even agree to have an expert panel. Then EPA stalled that expert panel for another year, arguing for absurdly inadequate approaches. As a result, all testing has been put off until some time after Election Day. We can’t help but worry what will be left of this process after the election,” said Robert Gulack, a New Jersey resident who was exposed to Ground Zero contamination through his job at the Woolworth Building on Broadway and Park Place. “If the federal government is acting in good faith, then EPA can and should give us an answer today,” he added.

The agency has seen these principles before. The request for EPA to adopt these principles was presented formally at the October 5, 2004 meeting of the EPA World Trade Center Expert Technical Review Panel. The White House Council on Environmental Quality had declared its agreement to create that Panel on October 27, 2003, as part of negotiations with Senator Hillary Clinton over approval of the nomination of EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt. In her power point presentation at the October 5 meeting, the Panel’s community liaison, Catherine McVay Hughes, a parent and asthma-educator who lives very close to Ground Zero, urged that the federal agency should make a solid commitment now.

“People are not going to want to open up their homes for testing if they don’t also have a firm commitment that if anything is found, it will be cleaned up,” Ms. Hughes explained.

The letter urges EPA to conduct comprehensive testing for indoor contamination not only in southern Manhattan but also in neighborhoods of Brooklyn that were covered by the dust cloud. It calls on EPA to commit to clean up contaminated buildings as warranted; assert authority over environmental safety during demolition of 9/11-contaminated structures such as the Deutsche Bank building; and support long-term medical monitoring, and care as needed, for people exposed to the World Trade Center pollution. While EPA has published a proposed design for indoor testing, community representatives note that it falls short of the mark for a credible program. They expressed strong disappointment that EPA had promised to work in partnership with the community, yet did not engage in a dialogue with them before publishing the protocol.

“Community people have invested many hours in these meetings. Sometimes we feel that progress is being made, but then we see some back-sliding,” said Suzanne Mattei, Executive for the Sierra Club’s national field office in New York City. “The bottom line is, we don’t know what we have. Is the federal government really going to help these people or not? We don’t know.”

“Early in the panel process, the community stepped forward to expose the inadequacies of EPA's testing and cleanup. We've proven that input from the community is the best assurance we have for preventing a repeat of past mistakes. The shortcomings of the current plan reflect EPA's failure to partner with the community," said Kimberly Flynn, spokesperson for 9/11 Environmental Action.

"The EPA's proposed testing program has very little benefit for people whose workplaces are in Lower Manhattan," said Joel Shufro, Executive Director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, "because the EPA wants to leave the decision about whether a workplace will be tested up to the employer. If employees want testing done in their workplace, the employer should not have veto power over the employees' right to know whether their workplace is safe."

Paul Stein, Health and Safety Chairperson for the New York State Public Employees Federation, Division, 199, stated, “Our members, employees of the New York State Department of Health, are angry that the federal government is doing such a poor job of protecting the health of New Yorkers who live and work near the World Trade Center site.”

Jenna Orkin, a Brooklyn resident who has tesified to the EPA panel about the need to conduct tests in Brooklyn, observes, “Following 9/11, my apartment in Brooklyn had a level of asbestos that was cause for concern. Even after a professional abatement, areas of the apartment still posed a significantly high cancer risk from asbestos. Their neglect of Brooklyn is an outrage.”

“We expect and we want the EPA to make it happen,” said Stan Mark, attorney and Program Director for the Asian American Legal Defense Fund, which has advocated for testing all downtown neighborhoods, including Chinatown and the Lower East Side, and other affected areas.

The organizations signing the letter represent many thousands of residents and workers in neighborhoods affected by the dust cloud that penetrated buildings upon the collapse of the towers. They include local resident associations, such as the Independence Plaza North Tenants Association, as well as borough-wide groups such as the Met Council on Housing and statewide groups such as Tenants and Neighbors. Unions of workers concerned about renewed contamination from the pending demolition of the highly contaminated Deutsche Bank building, such as the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, Local 300, the Civil Service Employees Association and Public Employees Federation also joined in the call for a clear answer from the federal government. The letter with full list of signatories follows.

NYCOSH's 9/11-related work is conducted in partnership with the United Church of Christ's National Disaster Ministries, with additional support from the September 11th Fund created by the United Way of New York City and the New York Community Trust.