Two Big Demolitions Raise Air Concerns

By Barry Owens
MAY 3, 2006

In a neighborhood once coated with dust and toxins from the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, any threat—real or imagined—of more dust-tainted air is enough to raise alarm. So red flags went up last month at two locations near Ground Zero, 130 Liberty Street and 189 Broadway, where the pending demolition of buildings has environmental regulators and neighbors nervous.

		Demolition plans for the shrouded former Deutsche Bank building on Liberty Street, which was severely damaged by the collapse of the trade center towers, raised concerns among government regulators last month, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency requested more details about how contractors plan to dismantle the structure and crush and cart off demolition debris. Workers have begun cleaning the interior and they are scheduled to begin dismantling the building in June.
Pat Evangelista, World Trade Center coordinator for the EPA, wrote in an April 11 letter to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owns the building, that regulators were concerned about a contractor's plans to use concrete crushing equipment at the site, to build an external chute to move debris, and to use some of that debris as backfill on the site.

"It is not clear to the regulators why the LMDC did not provide information to the regulators about the use of concrete crushing equipment long before," Evangelista wrote. He requested that the agency explain why there appeared to be a change in the demolition plan.

The LMDC insisted that there had been no change in the plan, which all along has called for two phases of work—a cleaning of the building's interior, followed by the dismantling of the building floor by floor.

"The EPA requested additional information about the implementation of the deconstruction plan they approved in September of 2005," an LMDC spokeswoman told the Trib in an e-mail. "We have and will continue to provide any necessary and requested information and documentation. We do not anticipate that this will cause delays in the project."

The apparent confusion between the agencies prompted Community Board 1 to draft and adopt an "emergency" resolution during its public meeting last month. The community board called on the EPA to take a more active role overseeing the building's demolition and requested that the LMDC revise its plan in accordance with the environmental agency's recommendations.

"There has to be more oversight and accountability on the part of the LMDC," Julie Menin, chairwoman of CB1, told the Trib. "They don't have experience in environmental matters."

A block away, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority last month halted demolition work at 189 Broadway, which was emptied of tenants in December to make way for the Fulton Street Transit Center, until the EPA could appraise the plan.

A CB1 member who lives in the area alerted regulators about the demolition work, which was begun without an environmental review.

"We shouldn't have to rely on a neighborhood watch system," Congressman Jerrold Nadler said in a statement.

Community board members had further cause for alarm last month as a New Jersey coroner's report found that the death of a Police Department detective was caused by his exposure to toxic dust at the World Trade Center site.

Workers have discovered nearly 600 bone fragments on the roof of 130 Liberty Street since work began on the building, but the search for remains was halted April 27 when the EPA discovered traces of asbestos there as well.