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Daily Environmental Monitoring Summary

Tuesday, December 18, 2001

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal, state and local agencies have collected extensive environmental monitoring data from the World Trade Center site and nearby areas in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey. Since September 11, EPA has taken samples of the air, dust, water, river sediments and drinking water and analyzed them for the presence of pollutants that might pose a health risk to response workers at the World Trade Center site and the public. The samples are evaluated against a variety of benchmarks, standards and guidelines established to protect public health under various conditions. EPA is collecting data from more than 20 fixed air monitors in and around ground zero and additional monitors in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. The Agency is also using portable sampling equipment to collect data from a range of locations.

Results as of 5:00 p.m. on 12/18

Air: Fixed Monitors in New York:
Asbestos - EPA analyzed 88 samples taken in and around ground zero from December 13 through December 15. In addition, EPA sampled for asbestos at three additional lower Manhattan locations on December 6 for a total of 90 samples. All samples showed results less than 70 structures per square millimeter, which is the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) standard for allowing children to re-enter school buildings after asbestos removal activities. This brings the total number of air samples collected and analyzed for lower Manhattan to 3,561, with 29 samples above the standard (27 of these were collected prior to September 30, one was collected on October 9 and the other on November 27).

Air: Fixed Monitors outside Lower Manhattan:
Asbestos - Samples were collected from additional asbestos monitors at Public School 154 (33 East 135th St., Bronx), Intermediate School 143 (511 W. 182nd St., Manhattan), P.S. 274 (800 Bushwick Ave, Brooklyn), P.S. 44 (80 Maple Parkway, Staten Island) and P.S. 199 (3290 48th St., Queens) on December 6. None showed exceedances of the AHERA re-entry standard.

Staten Island Landfill:
Air (Asbestos) - Eighteen air samples collected on December 15 were analyzed for asbestos. All were below the school re-entry standard.

PM10 - Monitoring for particulate matter (particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter) was conducted from November 17 through November 29 at Park Row, Chambers and West Streets, the Coast Guard building in Battery Park and at P.S. 274 on Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn. All 24-hour average values were below the National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 150 ug/m3.

VOCs - Sampling for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was conducted on December 17 in the direct area of the debris pile at ground zero. To protect workers at the work site, EPA takes grab samples of VOCs where smoke plumes have been sighted. The results are snapshots of the levels at a moment in time. OSHA's protective standards set a permissible exposure limit (PEL) averaged over an 8-hour day. Benzene exceeded the OSHA standard at one location on the debris pile, the North Tower.

Latest Available Daily Environmental Monitoring Summary

EPA information about the events of September 11

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