Report Says U.S. Misled New York City on Dust From Ground Zero

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Report Says U.S. Misled City on Dust From Ground Zero
By ANTHONY DePALMA
Published: June 21, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 20 — Federal environmental officials misled Lower Manhattan residents about the extent of contamination in their condominiums and apartments after the collapse of the World Trade Center, according to a preliminary report released on Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office.

According to the report, made public during a Senate subcommittee hearing, the Environmental Protection Agency did not accurately report the results of a residential cleanup program in 2002 and 2003. More than 4,000 apartments in Lower Manhattan were professionally decontaminated in that program, and the agency reported that only a “very small” number of air samples taken in those residences showed unsafe levels of asbestos.

But the agency failed to explain that 80 percent of the air samples were taken after the apartments had already been cleaned.

“That was misleading,” said John B. Stephenson, director of the natural resources and environment division of the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress. He spoke after testifying at a hearing of the Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which is reviewing the government’s response to environmental and health issues at ground zero.

The report concluded that the misleading information had left residents with an erroneous impression about risk. As a result, only 295 residents and apartment building owners asked to take part in a new residential cleanup program before enrollment ended in March. That number represented just a small portion of the 20,000 apartments eligible to participate....

***

Wednesday’s hearing was the first to look into the administration’s environmental response to the trade center disaster since Democrats took control of Congress....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/nyregion/21dust.html?_r=1&oref=login

[whistle]

1. And of course Rudy Guilliani embraced the findings as proof positive

....that New York rescue workers, clean-up crews, area office people and residents could go in quickly and safely while all of the criminal evidence was being systematically destroyed.

<snip>
May 14, 2007

As Rudy Giuliani touts his leadership skills on the campaign trial, news reports today again call into question the judgment of "America's mayor" in the aftermath of 9/11. According to The New York Times, Giuliani did not enforce federal requirements that workers at Ground Zero wear respirators and, as a result, "more than 2,000 New York City firefighters have been treated for serious respiratory problems."

Giuliani's administration was aware of the toxic levels of asbestos in air samples of Ground Zero yet he "sidelined" federal agencies with "extensive disaster response experience," assigning clean-up to an unknown city agency. And Giuliani re-opened sections of Manhattan "despite knowing the air was toxic," "overruling" the city's Department of Environmental Protection which found high levels of asbestos in 27 of 38 tests conducted.

While trying to defend his poor decision to put the command bunker in the shadow of the World Trade Center on Fox News Sunday yesterday, Giuliani also contradicted himself. Giuliani said, "Within a half hour on September 11, we were able to move immediately to another command center." But according to his own book Leadership, it took three hours to locate and setup a permanent command center after the first plan hit the World Trade Center.

"The more Americans learn about Rudy Giuliani's poor decisions in the aftermath of 9/11, the more they will continue to question his ability to lead the country," said DNC Press Secretary Stacie Paxton. "Americans are so fed up with the Bush Administration's mismanagement that they will not want another four years of incompetence from Rudy Giuliani."
<MORE>

http://www.democrats.org/a/2007/05/poor_911_decisi.php

[dogday]

4. And this is the monster they want to be President

Carrying on the old tradition of lies, deceit, and corruption...



Go Rudy :sarcasm:

[Captain Hilts]

2. Looks like the NYT is finally reading the NYDN. the DN has been all over this issue.

And the Administration should be keel-hauled for this crime. It's a crime.

[aquart]

3. I went from using my inhaler once a year to once a week.

Not life-threatening, just a difference. And Greenwich Village wasn't downwind most of the time.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Quite a difference, aquart! Thanks for reporting your real-life experience. nt