MANHATTAN: TOXIN LEVELS ALLEGEDLY HIGH IN BUILDING NEAR GROUND ZERO
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Rep. Jerrold Nadler released documents yesterday showing that levels of contaminants like asbestos, lead, and mercury in the to-be-demolished Deutsche Bank building next to ground zero are shockingly high.
The Democrat attacked the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which bought the building after it was damaged in the September 11, 2001, attacks, for saying it would demolish the bank under the assumption that it was contaminant free, which would allow for less-stringent safety measures than if it had contaminants. He called on the LMDC to release its environmental data and demanded that the Environmental Protection Agency relieve the organization in overseeing the demolition of the 40-story structure.
An LMDC spokeswoman denied that the organization had made that conclusion, saying it had not even finished its environmental studies.
The documents Mr. Nadler released come from a suit filed by Deutsche Bank, which has a financial incentive to show higher contamination levels, against its insurer, which has a financial incentive to show the opposite.
