NEW YORK, NY May 10, 2002 — The Environmental Protection Agency says it will have an apartment clean-up program in place by the end of the month for Lower Manhattan residents whose homes were shrouded in dust and ash after the World Trade Center collapsed. The EPA is calling the effort unprecedented, but elected officials and residents are giving it mixed reviews.

Under the program, any resident living below Canal Street may call a hotline and request a clean-up of their apartment, regardless of whether they've already had one done. City-certified contractors will do the work, which will take two or three days, and the EPA will follow up by testing the indoor air. The test will be for asbestos only. Officials say it is the primary contaminent of concern. Residents who don't want a clean-up can still ask for the asbestos test. Common areas, such as lobbies, will also be cleaned. EPA Regional Administrator Jane Kenny says the program is meant to reassure residents, not alarm them.

Kenny: "Again, everything that science is telling us is that there is no emergency here. And what we want to do now is make sure that there's no potential for long-term health risks."

The program is a stunning change for the EPA. Its officials -- and city officials, too -- had long maintained that indoor air quality monitoring and clean-ups were the responsibilities of owners and tenants, not the government. But Kenny says this is not a reversal for the agency, which has always urged residents to have their apartments professionally cleaned.

Kenny: "It really isn't different.. You can say it is, but….We see this as a very dynamic response to a cataclysmic event.

Local elected and community officials, who had demanded a government response to residents' indoor air and clean-up concerns, said they were glad the EPA was finally taking action. But many felt the program was incomplete. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, who's been a sharp critic of the EPA's response to the World Trade Center collapse, called the program "a tremendous step forward." But he thinks the EPA should test for other hazardous materials and expand the program to other neighborhoods. And Nadler belives the EPA should clean entire buildings, rather than individual apartments, in order to avoid possible recontamination.
Nadler: "It's a good program to a point, I have some criticisms, I think it's inadequate. But now that they've taken on the responsibility, now we're in a position to go further, to push them hard to go further, and I think we'll solve these problems."

The EPA says each apartment clean-up will cost between three thousand and five thousand dollars, which will be paid for with federal emergency money. Officials estimate there are 15-thousand units in Lower Manhattan. It's unclear how many people will ask for a clean-up. Several residents who attended the news conference said they will take advantage of the EPA's program, but their concerns were still evident. Michael Cook says he's still not back in his apartment, which was across the street from the South Tower. He doesn't know if the EPA's clean up will be effective.

4/Michael Cook: it remains to be seen how they implement it and how thorough their testing and remediation is. We've been trying to get something like this for a long time. It definitely is an improvement over what we've had for the last eight months.

The Lower Manhattan apartment clean-up plan is scheduled to start June 1st, when the EPA says it will have a hotline up and running. For WNYC, I'm Amy Eddings.