Testimony of Madelyn Wils,
Chairperson of Manhattan Community Board #1,
before the Senate Committee
on the Environment and Public Works
September 24, 2002
Thank you for giving me the
opportunity to speak with you today. As
chairperson of Community Board #1 and as a director of the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation, I represent the residents, workers, and business
owners of Lower Manhattan. I am glad to
share the community's perspective on the response to the horrific events of
September 11 by the Environmental Protection Agency.
One year after the attack on
the World Trade Center, there is still a great deal of anxiety among residents
regarding the type of pollutants that entered the atmosphere; how some of these
materials are still being found in indoor spaces even after cleaning; and, of
course, the long-term health implications from the exposure to these
elements.
Although Mayor Giuliani's
performance on the World Trade Center Pile and his response to the victim's
families was stellar, his lack of concern for the community at large was
alarming. In the wake of the attacks,
the EPA took a back seat to the Mayor's office instead of taking charge of the
public health efforts. It was their
responsibility to clean up this devastated community that lived with the dust
plume, debris that invaded our homes and businesses, and the fires that
continuously burned for five months.
With the change in the
city's administration and renewed interest in environmental issues, the EPA
decided to initiate an indoor residential air testing and/or cleaning
program. This was of course widely
applauded. These efforts may be
characterized, however, as too little too late. The clean-up program began enrolling candidates in the Summer
2002, nearly one year after the attack.
By this time, the overwhelming majority of residents had reinhabited
apartments cleaned unprofessionally or by workers without government oversight
or scientific standards. Many of these
people, having endured enormous disruptions in their lives, are understandably
reluctant one year later to turn their homes inside out, even though they may
be at risk of continued contamination or recontamination.
We have recommended to the
EPA that the deadline to sign up for their residential clean-up program be
extended past October 2, 2002, until the end of the year. This would enable EPA to do more effective
outreach and overcome the accumulated public distrust. It would allow the agency to publish results
obtained from the first months of testing, data that would help other residents
make a more informed decision whether to sign up for this program themselves.
This information will also
help the EPA make an informed decision on whether or not there is a need to
expand the clean-up area. Scientists
have referred to the boundary of Canal-Allen-Pike Streets as arbitrary. The EPA should conduct indoor testing
northward and eastward (across the East River) to determine the range of
contamination by the dust plume, which scattered debris in some cases for
miles. It can then formulate an
accurate and scientific boundary within which to pursue its testing and
cleaning.
One of the drawbacks of the
entire clean-up process was the lack of ability for FEMA to pay for the
clean-up of small businesses. The
Stafford Act should be amended so that we can be prepared in the future to help
all those who deserve it. Large
businesses cleaned their own premises, but 95% of the small businesses did not
have insurance coverage for this purpose and could not afford environmental
contractors. In fact, many of the
approximately 14,000 small businesses cleaned their premises themselves, most
likely insufficiently.
Schools, public spaces, and
parks that were copiously contaminated by the dust plume have received little
attention from the EPA. It seems
arbitrary, if not perverse, that places used by children for learning or play
received so little attention. Most of
these spaces, when tested privately, showed evidence of contamination,
particularly asbestos. In the future,
the EPA should consider testing or cleaning schools and parks a primary
concern.
Initially, the EPA announced
that it would test only for asbestos.
Now they have agreed to test for dioxin and heavy metals, but only in
about 250 homes. Yet contamination appears to be in many cases random, or
influenced by vagaries of wind that are wholly unpredictable. One floor of a building may show no
contamination while another floor does.
We ask that the EPA test all homes included in the program for these
contaminants, at least until a sufficient body of data have been collected to
rule out any threat.
All homes that are cleaned
should be tested for all the above after clean up, and all research data
obtained should be released as soon as possible. This should be accompanied by a complete explanation of all test
methodologies used. This data should be
documented on the Internet and in all local newspapers as well as in public
discussions to help eliminate public distrust.
A number of research studies
are investigating health impacts upon firefighters and other workers in the
rescue and recovery effort. Residents
who were encouraged to reoccupy homes close to Ground Zero have also
experienced respiratory problems, like myself, or other health impacts.
Research should be funded to study the long-term health impacts on exposure to
residents in the vicinity of the site.
On another subject, we
applaud FEMA for showing flexibility in allocating money toward transportation
projects in Lower Manhattan. This money
should be used not only to rebuild the aging, inadequate transportation
infrastructure that existed before September 11, but on projects that will
rebuild our business, residential, and visitor community by improving our links
to the region.
In summary, Community Board
#1 applauds the EPA for its decision to conduct the air testing and cleaning
program for the residents of Lower Manhattan.
They need to acknowledge, however, that their public outreach efforts
have been inadequate and they have an important obligation to keep local
citizens fully abreast about what their ongoing testing uncovers and of any
potential health problems, which may emanate from their findings. We recommend that the EPA do further
outreach; extend the sign-up deadline; and expand the scope of the testing and
cleanup program. I am grateful for the
attention Senator Clinton has brought to this issue, and I thank all the members
of the committee for your concern and for giving our recommendations your
consideration.