Judge's ruling on EPA and 9/11

[Guest guest]

Group,

There are several articles today about the judge's ruling on allowing

a class action suit against the EPA for their public position

regarding safety after 9/11. Three statements that immediately follow

are particularly interesting because they say they were deliberate

and the head of EPA at the time can be sued as an individual.

Christie Whitman, when she led the Environmental Protection Agency,

made " misleading statements of safety " about the air quality near the

World Trade Center in the days after the Sept. 11 attack and may have

put the public in danger, a federal judge found yesterday...

In her ruling, Judge Batts decided not to dismiss the case against

Mrs. Whitman, who is being sued both as former administrator of the

E.P.A. and as an individual...

" By these actions, " Judge Batts wrote, Mrs. Whitman " increased, and

may have in fact created, the danger " to people living and working

near the trade center. Judge Batts said that Mrs. Whitman was not

entitled to immunity because she was a public official...

Other articles include:

www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-EPA-Sept-11-Lawsuit.html

www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-environment-wtc.html

Carl Grimes

Healthy Habitats LLC

The excerpts above, and full text below are from:

www.nytimes.com/2006/02/03/nyregion/03suit.html?ex=1296622800 & en=8a918

2a291626af4 & ei=5090 & partner=rssuserland & emc=rss

----------Full NYTimes article----------

February 3, 2006

Public Misled on Air Quality After 9/11 Attack, Judge Says

By JULIA PRESTON

Christie Whitman, when she led the Environmental Protection Agency,

made " misleading statements of safety " about the air quality near the

World Trade Center in the days after the Sept. 11 attack and may have

put the public in danger, a federal judge found yesterday.

The pointed criticism of Mrs. Whitman came in a ruling by the judge,

Deborah A. Batts of Federal District Court in Manhattan, in a 2004

class action lawsuit on behalf of residents and schoolchildren from

downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn who say they were exposed to air

contamination inside buildings near the trade center.

The suit, against Mrs. Whitman, other former and current E.P.A.

officials and the agency itself, charges that they failed to warn

people of dangerous materials in the air and then failed to carry out

an adequate cleanup. The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages and

want the judge to order a thorough cleaning.

In her ruling, Judge Batts decided not to dismiss the case against

Mrs. Whitman, who is being sued both as former administrator of the

E.P.A. and as an individual.

As a legal matter, the ruling established that the suit's charges

were well-documented and troubling enough to meet a legal standard to

go forward. But Judge Batts also criticized Mrs. Whitman's

performance in the days after the collapse of the towers unleashed,

by the E.P.A.'s estimates, one million tons of dust on lower

Manhattan and beyond.

" The allegations in this case of Whitman's reassuring and misleading

statements of safety after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks are without

question conscience-shocking, " Judge Batts said.

Calls to the Whitman Strategy Group, Mrs. Whitman's current business,

and to Glenn S. Greene, the Justice Department lawyer who is

representing her and the E.P.A. in the case, were not immediately

returned. Mrs. Whitman, a former New Jersey governor, was

administrator of the E.P.A. from 2001 to 2003.

Mrs. Whitman knew that the towers' destruction had released huge

amounts of hazardous emissions, Judge Batts found. But as early as

Sept. 13, Mrs. Whitman and the agency put out press releases saying

that the air near ground zero was relatively safe and that there were

" no significant levels " of asbestos dust in the air. They gave a

green light for residents to return to their homes near the trade

center site.

" By these actions, " Judge Batts wrote, Mrs. Whitman " increased, and

may have in fact created, the danger " to people living and working

near the trade center. Judge Batts said that Mrs. Whitman was not

entitled to immunity because she was a public official. Judge Batts

allowed the suit to proceed on some counts against the E.P.A. She

dismissed claims against nne L. Horinko, an assistant

administrator of the E.P.A. at the time.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs were " very gratified that the court has

recognized that the E.P.A. failed in its obligation to protect the

residents of downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn, " said Blitz, a

lead lawyer on the case.

In a statement yesterday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton called the

E.P.A.'s conduct " outrageous. "

" New Yorkers were depending on the federal government to provide them

with accurate information about the air they were breathing, " she

said. " I continue to believe that the White House owes New Yorkers an

explanation. "

About 2,000 tons of asbestos and 424,000 tons of concrete were used

to build the towers, and when they came crashing down they released

dust laden with toxins. After an expert panel failed last year to

settle on a method for organizing an E.P.A. cleanup, the agency said

it would proceed anyway with limited testing and cleaning of

apartments in downtown Manhattan below Canal Street.

Copyright 2006The New York Times

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