From New York Newsday, 8/23/03:
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-air0824,0,7364240.story?coll=nyc-topheadlines-span
Reps Push for Federal Inquiry Into EPA Cover-Up
By Cynthia Needham
Staff Writer
August 23, 2003, 5:43 PM EDT
City officials and residents of lower Manhattan Saturday called for a
congressional investigation into the White House's role in the
Environmental Protection Agency's alleged air quality cover-up after
Sept. 11, and demanded a proper cleanup of the area.
Words like "outrage" and "disgrace" pierced the air like the toxic
chemicals they were meant to describe, as Rep. Jerrold Nadler
(D-Manhattan), Councilman David Yasskey (D-Brooklyn) and others
gathered to discuss an EPA report, issued late Friday, that contained
the allegations.
The report, published by the agency's Inspector General, concludes the
White House influenced the EPA to downplay concerns about air
contaminants in the days immediately following the World Trade Center
disaster.
Nadler, a long-time environmental watchdog, revealed a laundry list of
demands for the federal government, including the promise of an
EPA-funded second round of cleanups that meet superfund regulations
and cost what he called a loosely estimated "tens of millions of
dollars."
The congressman also insisted that the decontamination include work
spaces, schools and firehouses in addition to residential buildings,
and be expanded to include Chinatown, the Lower East Side and parts of
Brooklyn -- areas that did not originally qualify for clean-up, but
may have been adversely affected.
Nadler said in some ways he was not surprised by the report.
When the area surrounding Ground Zero was given a clean bill of health
in the weeks after the attacks, Nadler said his office was so
skeptical, it arranged for its own assessment.
"The testing showed high levels of toxic contamination in indoor
spaces and apartments in lower Manhattan," Nadler said.
"We gave this information to the EPA, the EPA hid it and lied about it
and continues to this day lying about it apparently at the
instructions of George Bush's White House."
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Residents who gathered with the officials said they, too, feared the
air quality was bad, but, they said, as average citizens they were
more inclined to believe the EPA wouldn't lie to them.
John Quinn, 54, who lives in lower Manhattan, said he had always
considered himself to be a healthy person.
After the attacks, he was quick to return to his apartment near the
South Street Seaport.
Then one day, he said, he caught a cold he just couldn't shake.
"The doctor finally told me, 'It's not a cold, you have asthma,'"
Quinn said.
"They don't know if it will ever go away."
It's residents like Quinn, and untold others, that Nadler said have
convinced him that "the White House and EPA officials have blood on
their hands."
The report, he said, just proves what he's sensed for nearly two
years.
He acknowledged, however, that a Republican-controlled Congress may be
unlikely to move on the issue.
"We'll have to see what happens," he said.
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Bush'll cover this up along with all the other ***** he's covering up.
Harry
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