Posted on 03/10/2004 10:17:15 PM PST by NYC GOP Chick
he health of tens of thousands of people who live and work in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn has been endangered by the way federal officials mishandled the environmental hazards caused by the collapse of the World Trade Center, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in United States District Court in Manhattan.
Twelve Manhattan residents and workers sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to follow its own procedures to ensure the area was safe before allowing people to return.
They also accused the agency's former administrator, Christie Whitman, of displaying "a shockingly deliberate indifference to human health" when she issued reassuring statements about air quality downtown that proved to be misleading.
"As a result," according to the lawsuit, a large group of New Yorkers exposed "to hazardous substances for over two years is left with the expense of full and proper cleanup of their residences and workplaces, and is faced with potentially serious long-term health effects."
In a statement, an E.P.A. regional administrator, Jane M. Kenny, said she had not seen the lawsuit and would not comment on it.
Since the dense cloud of dust and debris billowed through Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, contradictory statements about safety and risk have tarnished the reputation of the federal agency. Some residents fear they were deliberately misled by government officials more eager to see normalcy return to the area than to safeguard New Yorkers.
Just last week, federal officials conceded their hope that the formation of a panel of independent experts to oversee the cleanup would help restore lost confidence.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 12 residents - workers, students and business owners - but it seeks to represent the entire class of people exposed to the hazardous dust. One of the 12, Robert Gulack of Fair Lawn, N.J., a senior lawyer with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said he developed severe respiratory problems because improperly cleaned stairways and elevators contaminated his office.
The lawsuit claims the E.P.A. had the regulatory responsibility for cleaning up indoor spaces. Initially, it delegated the task to the city, and then failed to supervise the city's inadequate response, the suit says.
A year after the attack, the federal agency agreed to take over the indoor cleanup. It implemented a voluntary program for residences in a limited area around ground zero. But the area to be cleaned excluded many apartments north of Canal Street and in Brooklyn. Offices were also excluded.
The lawsuit estimates that about 17,000 homes and many workplaces should have been tested for contamination and cleaned. It seeks the thorough testing of affected apartments and offices in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, the creation of a medical fund to pay for health testing of people exposed to the trade center dust, and the reimbursement of people who have paid to have their apartments and businesses cleaned.
I saw it back in November 2001 when some morons in my apartment building were trying to jack everyone up into a rent strike because we didn't get as big a rent discount as did the poor people who literally live(d) right over the WTC site -- being 5 blocks away, we got a 10% concession, while those in the buildings right over the smouldering ruins got 25% off from the same management company.
They actually formed a Yahoo group to try to figure out how to game the landlord. When I pointed out that demanding a decrease in rent because of "dangerous air quality" doesn't make sense, because if the air is really *that* bad, then they shouldn't stay at *any* price, this one guy chimed in thusly: "I have not determined yet (call me slow) that the environment is bad enough for me to go through the hassle of finding another apartment given my schedule." OK...
Anyway, I was here (outside, actually) when it all happened and I moved back here 12 days after -- and I have yet to meet anyone who lives or works down here who had any actual respiratory problems (other than the very temporary discomfort those of us caught in the debris clouds had that morning). Interestingly, the one person whom I knew who bitched loudest about the "air quality" lives on the Upper West Side and adamantly refused to believe that what she'd been smelling at home (in late 2001) was not from 7 miles south of her, but from a recent major fire at a church much closer to her neighborhood.
Anyway, this demand for the gubmint (read: we, the taxpayers) to pay for the cleaning of homes and offices in *Brooklyn* is beyond asinine. I'm five freaking blocks away, and have yet to find one speck of WTC dust in my home. Why these people can't just count their blessings and be grateful that they weren't killed and that their apartments weren't destroyed (I know people who lost virtually everything they owned), I don't know...
OK, and in the morning, I'll see if this rambling rant still makes any sense to me!
You have no idea how many people I know or have just met in passing who weren't here when it happened, but are quick to point out that they "could have been there!" or "might have been there!" Hell, I know one guy who admitted to me (around the time of the second anniversary) that in a way, he wishes he'd been here so that he could have "experienced it" himself! I told him that I'd give anything to have NOT lived through it -- to have not seen the hideous things I saw and to have not twice thought I was about to die.
Just like the Clinton Scourge can't be relieved that they weren't personally affected and had to make up that laughable lie about Chelsea running down here in search of a payphone, these people all want to get in on the action!
And then there are the greedy dirtbags whose primary thought is what they can get out of it. I had to laugh when all the tough-talkers in my building quickly caved and shut up about their "rent strike" when the eviction notices started rolling in. If they were serious about a legit rent strike, they would have hired a lawyer and set up an escrow account, so that rent could be deposited there until things were settled. But they just wanted to not pay rent and live here for free for a while.
In the months after 9/11, there was some center a block or so from me, where people could get free HEPA filters/air purifiers -- and people from all over Manhattan and Brooklyn were lining up to get their freebies. I'd say that 70% or more of them didn't need it, but nothing was going to stop them from getting something for free!
Thanks! When I was a writer, I used to do some of my best work (feature stories) in the middle of the night. Of course, then I had the advantage of letting it sit there until morning, when I was (somewhat) coherent.
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