Contaminated Buildings To Be Demolished

More than three years after September 11, five Lower Manhattan buildings that were contaminated as a result of the terrorist attack, including the Deutsche Bank building, are about to be demolished.While the tearing down of the damaged buildings may help heal the psyches of some New Yorkers, concerns are mounting over the handling of the contaminated sites and possible threats to public health.Some residents, workers, and elected officials said they fear the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which they blame for misleading statements about the levels of carcinogens in the air around ground zero after the attacks, may mislead them again as it handles the demolition project.The buildings to be demolished are the Deutsche Bank building, 130 Liberty St.; 4 Albany St.; 90 West St.; 130 Cedar St., and the Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Fiterman Hall, 30 West Broadway. Among the contaminants said to be in the buildings are asbestos, dioxin, mercury, carbon monoxide, lead, particulate matter, and fungi.During a hearing yesterday of the City Council’s Select Committee on Lower Manhattan Redevelopment, officials said the impending demolition of the contaminated buildings will be handled by a coalition of federal, state, and city agencies, headed by the EPA.According to council members at the hearing, some people who contracted illnesses caused by the World Trade Center debris want assurances that this time, information from the agencies responsible for the demolition is free flowing and honest.It was clear during testimony yesterday that the wounds of Lower Manhattan are still raw. Although the EPA vowed to ensure safety during demolition, critics expressed wariness.“How do we know you are going to make sure companies hired to do this aren’t going to lie to us?” Council Member Margarita Lopez, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Lower Manhattan, asked.Ms. Lopez suggested to Pat Evangelista, who is the World Trade Center coordinator for the EPA, that the agency hold monthly meetings with the public to allow residents to alert it “when something is happening in the middle of the night and you don’t see it.”In the past, Ms. Lopez said, residents came to her house in the middle of the night to wake her when they found out a contractor at another site was removing asbestos illegally.“You don’t want to see me at 1 in the morning in my pajamas,” Ms. Lopez warned Mr. Evangelista.The EPA official suggested that the community “continue to keep tabs on us, and you’ll see our efforts are genuine and comprehensive.” He also said he was open to the idea of meetings and promised to have an open-door policy with the public.During questioning, the committee chairman, Council Member Alan Gerson, asked if the EPA plans to do anything differently this time. When Mr. Evangelista said it didn’t, Mr. Gerson replied, “I had hoped for a different answer.”An aide to Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat of Manhattan, expressed disbelief that the EPA didn’t seem to have learned from its mistakes.“We can’t be satisfied that they’re continuing with their ‘stellar’ behavior,” the aide, Linda Rosenthal, said.A representative for the city’s public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, read her testimony, which called on the EPA to make information more accessible to the public and recommended a centralized Web site and telephone hot line be established to provide the public with current information.The president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Kevin Rampe, said demolition of the Deutsche Bank building is expected to begin this summer.

Contaminated Buildings To Be Demolished

Contaminated Buildings To Be Demolished

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