There was uncertainty about 9/11 air quality for the first few weeks, Sen. Schumer says
Tough choices had to be made in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, including when it would be safe to reopen Lower Manhattan.
Many of the decisions were made without the full understanding of the potential repercussions, repercussions we are still living with today.
Two days after the attacks, on Sept. 13, Christine Todd Whitman, then the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, told reporters that initial air quality readings at Ground Zero did not indicate any health hazards.
Just four days later, the New York Stock Exchange was open for business. To many, the closing bell that Sept. 17 was an important symbol to the world that the United States would survive the devastation that continues to affect the country 25 years later.
"It was important for the whole country that people saw New York was coming back, and there were many ways to do it. Opening the Stock Exchange was one of them," Sen. Charles Schumer told CBS News New York's Marcia Kramer. "Everyone thought, Marcia, in those days that there would be nothing below Canal Street, below Chambers Street would become a desert. They thought all the financial companies would leave New York because they'd be afraid of another attack.
"Getting New York back up on its feet as quickly as possible was vital for people's jobs, for people's livelihood. In terms of health, it wasn't immediately apparent that all this gunk in the air would cause such illnesses," he added.
Even Schumer concedes, "I think in the very first weeks no one knew whether the air was fine or not."
It didn't take long, however, before Schumer and others began sounding the alarm. Congressman Jerry Nadler, who represents that Lower Manhattan district, said government officials like Whitman and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani betrayed the trust of New Yorkers.
"I was screaming at the top of my lungs to protect our communities, my constituents, but officials like EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and Mayor Giuliani denied claims like mine, saying the air was perfectly safe. Blasphemous," Nadler said.
Whitman, the former governor of New Jersey, issued a statement Tuesday that said, in part, "Statements I made at the time about the quality of air outside the Ground Zero site were based entirely on the analysis done by EPA scientists. There were several other private and governmental entities also collecting air quality data and they did not contradict the EPA's analysis. Within days, the EPA had put up a website with all the data available, which they frequently updated so that it was all public. The goal was as much transparency as possible. Everyone at the EPA did the best they could with the information, tools, and knowledge available at the time."
Whitman said the EPA did not control the Ground Zero work site or have authority to regulate or manage indoor air quality standards. The agency, she says, "offered inspections to any residents that were willing to accept that EPA support."
Schumer will be giving a major speech on 9/11 on Thursday, entitled "From Terror to Triumph."
