A Disaster Without Boundaries
September 11, 2001 was a difficult day for almost everyone in these United States. The moment that first plane hit, it was certain that the events of that day would continue to raise questions for many years to come. Of course there would be questions such as how, who, and why it happened, but the overarching question my community board faced was how it would affect our environment today and tomorrow. This is not the senseless rhetorical question one might think. It is a real concern that the affect of air contamination from the collapse of the World Trade towers may linger for a very long time. The central focuses of the meeting were several statements made by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the week following the 9/11 disaster. In these statements, the EPA stated that the area surrounding the disaster zone was clean and contained uncontaminated, breathable air (Simpson). The EPA believed there were minimal levels of asbestos and even lesser levels of heavy metals, diesel fuel, dioxin, and PCB’s in the air. But it would later be revealed nearly one year later, that there did in fact exist strong amounts of asbestos in the surrounding areas of the disaster zone:
With these points as a basis for argument, Community Board #2 will demand that Environmental Action and other groups with federal funding supervised by the EPA join together in a comprehensive cleanup of all places where hazardous materials remain as a result of the World Trade Center collapse, with a particular focus on interiors and HVAC systems. Further testing will conclude whether these areas need a full-scale cleanup. Questions may arise as to how these arguments evolved and the origin of the source that is responsible for the birth of these arguments. Well, it seems that recently, the office of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued two reports, “EPA’s Response to the World Trade Center Collapse…” in August 2003, and “Survey of Air Quality Information Related to the World Trade Center Collapse” in September 2003. In these reports, it is stated that EPA Administrator Whitman downplayed the air quality risk to New Yorkers after September 11, 2001, and in downplaying the risk, she issued reassuring press releases in response to direction by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), on behalf of the White House, which was concerned that New York businesses and the New York Stock Exchange would not function as usual. A conflict existed in as much as the EPA is the federal agency responsible for the remediation of hazardous materials outside and inside building structures following a terrorist attack, and instead of safe guarding the public from the hazard, it failed to disclose that there was a hazard. Community Board #2 along with other members of the EPA union are in protest of the failure of EPA leadership to act to protect the health of people in the affected areas. Furthermore, according to the OIG’s reports, there is evidence of the spread of hazardous materials outside the EPA’s chosen boundaries for cleanup, including into Manhattan Community Board #2. In my mind, the arguments of Community Board #2 are well put and supported. The EPA does need to be mindful of areas outside th
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Approximate Word count = 1402
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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