9/11 Air Quality

rimrocker · Feb 3, 2006

Good. Nail her to the wall.

Public Misled on Air Quality After 9/11 Attack, Judge Says
By JULIA PRESTON
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/03/nyregion/03suit.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Christie Whitman, when she led the Environmental Protection Agency, made "misleading statements of safety" about the air quality near the World Trade Center in the days after the Sept. 11 attack and may have put the public in danger, a federal judge found yesterday.

The pointed criticism of Mrs. Whitman came in a ruling by the judge, Deborah A. Batts of Federal District Court in Manhattan, in a 2004 class action lawsuit on behalf of residents and schoolchildren from downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn who say they were exposed to air contamination inside buildings near the trade center.

The suit, against Mrs. Whitman, other former and current E.P.A. officials and the agency itself, charges that they failed to warn people of dangerous materials in the air and then failed to carry out an adequate cleanup. The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages and want the judge to order a thorough cleaning.

In her ruling, Judge Batts decided not to dismiss the case against Mrs. Whitman, who is being sued both as former administrator of the E.P.A. and as an individual.

As a legal matter, the ruling established that the suit's charges were well-documented and troubling enough to meet a legal standard to go forward. But Judge Batts also criticized Mrs. Whitman's performance in the days after the collapse of the towers unleashed, by the E.P.A.'s estimates, one million tons of dust on lower Manhattan and beyond.

"The allegations in this case of Whitman's reassuring and misleading statements of safety after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks are without question conscience-shocking," Judge Batts said.

Calls to the Whitman Strategy Group, Mrs. Whitman's current business, and to Glenn S. Greene, the Justice Department lawyer who is representing her and the E.P.A. in the case, were not immediately returned. Mrs. Whitman, a former New Jersey governor, was administrator of the E.P.A. from 2001 to 2003.

Mrs. Whitman knew that the towers' destruction had released huge amounts of hazardous emissions, Judge Batts found. But as early as Sept. 13, Mrs. Whitman and the agency put out press releases saying that the air near ground zero was relatively safe and that there were "no significant levels" of asbestos dust in the air. They gave a green light for residents to return to their homes near the trade center site.

"By these actions," Judge Batts wrote, Mrs. Whitman "increased, and may have in fact created, the danger" to people living and working near the trade center. Judge Batts said that Mrs. Whitman was not entitled to immunity because she was a public official. Judge Batts allowed the suit to proceed on some counts against the E.P.A. She dismissed claims against Marianne L. Horinko, an assistant administrator of the E.P.A. at the time.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs were "very gratified that the court has recognized that the E.P.A. failed in its obligation to protect the residents of downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn," said Justin Blitz, a lead lawyer on the case.

In a statement yesterday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton called the E.P.A.'s conduct "outrageous."

"New Yorkers were depending on the federal government to provide them with accurate information about the air they were breathing," she said. "I continue to believe that the White House owes New Yorkers an explanation."

About 2,000 tons of asbestos and 424,000 tons of concrete were used to build the towers, and when they came crashing down they released dust laden with toxins. After an expert panel failed last year to settle on a method for organizing an E.P.A. cleanup, the agency said it would proceed anyway with limited testing and cleaning of apartments in downtown Manhattan below Canal Street.
Click to expand...

It's not clear from the article, but the lawsuit relates to this...

EPA misled public on 9/11 pollution
White House ordered false assurances on air quality, report says
- Laurie Garrett, Newsday
Saturday, August 23, 2003

New York -- In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the White House instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to give the public misleading information, telling New Yorkers it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available.

That finding is included in a report released Friday by the Office of the Inspector General of the EPA. It noted that some of the agency's news releases in the weeks after the attack were softened before being released to the public: Reassuring information was added, while cautionary information was deleted.

"When the EPA made a September 18 announcement that the air was 'safe' to breathe, it did not have sufficient data and analyses to make such a blanket statement," the report says. "Furthermore, the White House Council on Environmental Quality influenced . . . the information that EPA communicated to the public through its early press releases when it convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones."

On the morning of Sept. 12, according to the report, the office of then-EPA Administrator Christie Whitman issued a memo: "All statements to the media should be cleared through the NSC (National Security Council in the White House) before they are released." The 165-page report compares excerpts from EPA draft statements to the final versions, including these:

The draft statement contained a warning from EPA scientists that homes and businesses near ground zero should be cleaned by professionals. Instead, the public was told to follow instructions from New York City officials.

Another draft statement was deleted; it raised concerns about "sensitive populations" such as asthma patients, the elderly and people with underlying respiratory diseases.

LEVELS OF ASBESTOS

A statement about discovery of asbestos at higher than safe levels in dust samples from lower Manhattan was changed to state that "samples confirm previous reports that ambient air quality meets OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) standards and consequently is not a cause for public concern."

Language in an EPA draft stating that asbestos levels in some areas were three times higher than national standards was changed to "slightly above the 1 percent trigger for defining asbestos material."

This sentence was added to a Sept. 16 news release: "Our tests show that it is safe for New Yorkers to go back to work in New York's financial district." It replaced a statement that initial monitors failed to turn up dangerous samples.

A warning on the importance of safely handling ground zero cleanup, due to lead and asbestos exposure, was changed to say that some contaminants had been noted downtown but "the general public should be very reassured by initial sampling."

The report also notes examples when EPA officials claimed that conditions were safe when no scientific support was available.

New York's leaders responded with dismay.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Manhattan Democrat, called for a Justice Department investigation. "That the White House instructed EPA officials to downplay the health impact of the World Trade Center contaminants due to 'competing considerations' at the expense of the health and lives of New York City residents is an abomination," he said in a news release.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in an interview it was "understandable that in the midst of a crisis the White House did not want the EPA to sound alarmist." But, he warned, "If the public loses faith that things are safe when the government says so, we'll have done more damage than a pointed statement the week after 9/11 would have."

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

EPA CHIEF

Acting EPA Administrator Marianne Horinko, who sat in on EPA meetings with the White House during the attack's aftermath, said in an interview that the White House had played a coordinating role, assembling information from various federal agencies.

"It was a role someone had to play," Horinko said. "There was a potential for a Tower of Babel, and we needed to speak with one voice."

The National Security Council played the key role, filtering incoming data on ground zero air and water, Horinko said. "I think that the thinking was, these are experts in WMD (weapons of mass destruction), so they should have the coordinating role."

The focus at EPA, she continued, was on gathering data and making it public as rapidly as possible.

"Under unbelievably trying conditions, EPA did the best that it could," she said.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/08/23/MN300070.DTL
Click to expand...

Prior to Katrina, this caused the most visceral reaction from me. I can't believe our Government... no matter how much people wanted Wall Street to start trading and show that we would carry on...intentionally placed the lives of the public and public servants in danger for appearances. Unconscionable.

robbie380 · Feb 3, 2006

rimrocker said:

Prior to Katrina, this caused the most visceral reaction from me. I can't believe our Government... no matter how much people wanted Wall Street to start trading and show that we would carry on...intentionally placed the lives of the public and public servants in danger for appearances. Unconscionable.
Click to expand...

ummmmm wall street is private just so you know.

MR. MEOWGI · Feb 3, 2006

Wait, I'm confused. I thought I was supposed to hate the EPA becuase they intrude too much, not becuase they do to little.

pirc1 · Feb 3, 2006

MR. MEOWGI said:

Wait, I'm confused. I thought I was supposed to hate the EPA becuase they intrude too much, not becuase they do to little.
Click to expand...

Don't you know that 9/11 changed everything?

rimrocker · Feb 3, 2006

robbie380 said:

ummmmm wall street is private just so you know.
Click to expand...

I've known that for quite some time. What's your point?

losttexan · Feb 3, 2006

Why be upset with rimrocker?

The truth is political now? Every person should be concerned about how our government reacts in a crisis.

Space Ghost · Feb 3, 2006

I really hope a democrat comes to office in 2008. All problems will be solved, world peace will be achieved, and all corruption will come to an end.

FranchiseBlade · Feb 3, 2006

Space Ghost said:

I really hope a democrat comes to office in 2008. All problems will be solved, world peace will be achieved, and all corruption will come to an end.
Click to expand...

That is your response to an administration that lies telling people the air quality is safe when it is actually dangerous and deadly?

Do you think your level of concern with people's general health, especially those who experienced 9/11 first hand, is typical of other Bush supporters?

I am guessing from your response that you think this kind of thing is true not just of Republicans but all politicians.

Do you think that when something like this happens people shouldn't voice their disapproval and the people who claimed something dangerous was safe shouldn't have to be held accountable for their actions?

losttexan · Feb 3, 2006

Space Ghost said:

I really hope a democrat comes to office in 2008. All problems will be solved, world peace will be achieved, and all corruption will come to an end.
Click to expand...

That’s hysterical. Do you remember the Clinton administration? The Republicans would not stop the attacks. That started the polarization of the parties. It wasn't there before the Republicans incessant attacks on Clinton. The Democrats didn't treat Bush Sr. or Reagan that way just as the Republicans didn't treat Carter that way.

You reap what you sow.

insane man · Feb 3, 2006

losttexan said:

That’s hysterical. Do you remember the Clinton administration? The Republicans would not stop the attacks. That started the polarization of the parties. It wasn't there before the Republicans incessant attacks on Clinton. The Democrats didn't treat Bush Sr. or Reagan that way just as the Republicans didn't treat Carter that way.

You reap what you sow.
Click to expand...

sarcasm my friend. he's probably on your side.

Forums

9/11 Air Quality

rimrocker Member

robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
Supporting Member

MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

pirc1 Member

rimrocker Member

losttexan Member

Space Ghost Member

FranchiseBlade Member
Supporting Member

losttexan Member

insane man Member

Share This Page

About ClutchFans

Rockets Content

Support ClutchFans!

9/11 Air Quality

rimrocker Member

robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ) Supporting Member

MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

pirc1 Member

rimrocker Member

losttexan Member

Space Ghost Member

FranchiseBlade Member Supporting Member

losttexan Member

insane man Member

Share This Page

robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
Supporting Member

FranchiseBlade Member
Supporting Member