NYT: Apartments tested downtown are ruled free of asbestos

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October 23, 2002

Apartments Tested Downtown Are Ruled Free of Asbestos

By KIRK JOHNSON

he vast majority of the apartments in Lower Manhattan that have been cleaned and tested over the last few months had no asbestos contamination from World Trade Center dust, federal Environmental Protection Agency officials said yesterday in releasing the first results from the cleanup program.

They cautioned that while the early numbers were encouraging, the indoor cleanup had barely begun, with only about 250 apartments completed out of nearly 6,000 registered. Only three apartments, so far, had asbestos fibers at levels that were above the agency's safety threshold.

The E.P.A. officials, speaking to reporters at a briefing at the agency's offices a few blocks from the trade center site, described the cleanup project as a work in progress that will evolve as more is learned about contamination in the area and as more apartments are tested. But they said at least one major bump in the road has already emerged: New Yorkers are too busy.

Scheduling has become an unexpected headache, they said, as people cancel cleaning appointments. In other cases, E.P.A. cleaners are being stood up, arriving with their high-performance vacuums at the ready, unable to get inside.

"They schedule a date and something comes up — obviously those things happen," said Kathleen Callahan, an assistant regional administrator at the agency in charge of New York City recovery and response operations. "But us showing up with contractors at apartments and having nobody there is an expenditure of money that we don't want to happen, and so we're trying to get the word out to people that they really need to stay with us and help us."

The E.P.A. has been harshly criticized by some downtown residents and politicians for its response to Sept. 11. The apartment-cleaning work, for example, did not begin until more than a year after the disaster. Some residents' groups have also urged the agency to test for more contaminants than just asbestos, and to expand the program to Brooklyn and perhaps farther north in Manhattan. Currently only residents living south of Canal and Pike Streets in Manhattan are eligible.

Ms. Callahan said the science of cleaning and testing indoor spaces was evolving even as the cleanup proceeded. About 250 apartments are to be tested for lead, mercury and dioxins, for example, in addition to asbestos, and she said that based on the results of those tests, the program could be modified.

The agency has also been criticized by some residents because the work began before the scientific review process for conducting it had been completed, and before formal standards for indoor residential air quality could be established. But Ms. Callahan said that cleaning first and asking questions as the cleanup proceeded was a deliberate decision, because waiting for the last word on the science could have added additional months to a process that was already running behind schedule.

"People were very anxious to get support, to get their apartments cleaned up, so we wanted to get started as soon as possible," she said. "If we have to refine it in the longer term, then we'll use the data that we've collected and we'll make those refinements."

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