EPA Unveils Its Final Plan for WTC Dust Testing Downtown by Etta Sanders The federal Environmental Protection Agency last month announced a revised, and probably final, plan for testing and cleaning Downtown residences in an effort to remove any lingering World Trade Center dust. Under the $7 million program, Manhattan residents living south of Canal Street can request to have their apartments tested by the EPA. If benchmark levels of four contaminants-lead, asbestos, man-made vitreous fiber, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons-are found, the agency will do a free cleaning. The plan is a scaled-back version of one announced earlier this year that would also have included parts of Brooklyn and commercial spaces. "EPA seeks to provide assurances to people living and working in Lower Manhattan who have remaining concerns about the presence of dust from the World Trade Center collapse," said Timothy Oppelt, interim chairman of the World Trade Center Expert Technical Review Panel. The panel was formed in March 2004 to devise a plan to identify and clean up remaining contaminants. Oppelt said that workers who are worried about contaminants in commercial spaces must contact the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration or the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. "We just don't have authority when it comes to worker environments," he said. The announcement marks the end of the panel's work. Last spring, it recommended that the EPA sample residential and commercial spaces along the Brooklyn waterfront and below Canal Street to look for so-called "signature dust" from the trade center's collapse. That plan was rejected. The panel will hold its final meeting on Dec. 13, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., at the U.S. Customs House. In 2003 and 2004, the EPA cleaned more than 4,000 apartments, but critics charged that the effort was insufficient. Catherine McVay Hughes, the Downtown resident on the panel, called the new sampling method inadequate. She said that in addition to looking at WTC dust, the panel was charged with assessing unmet health needs of residents and workers, and that has not been done. "The panel process was shut down without completing its charge," she said. The plan also has come under fire from Sen. Hillary Clinton, who called the disbanding of the panel "unacceptable." She said the new plan failed to address the shortcomings of earlier EPA efforts. But Wendi Thomi, EPA community involvement coordinator, said money was a factor in limiting the testing area. "The sky is not the limit," she said. "We have to work within budgetary constraints."