Worries mount over trade center pollution

Associated Press

NEW YORK – When the World Trade Center crumbled, the spotlight was on its two majestic towers, not on 7 World Trade Center – a building that stood and collapsed in their shadows.

But 7 WTC was toxic.

It housed two electrical substations owned by Con Edison, and they contained 109,000 gallons of oil and hundreds of pounds of potentially dangerous chemicals that were set loose when the building fell.

Trace amounts of PCBs, a carcinogen, and larger quantities of sulfuric acid, a possible carcinogen and respiratory irritant, were among the hazards.

Details about some of the pollutants are contained in reports Con Ed made to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation beginning Sept. 11. The Associated Press recently obtained the documents from Con Ed.

No one is sure what happened to the chemicals. Because the Environmental Protection Agency quickly had oil, water and other liquids pumped from manholes and basements at the trade center site, some of the pollutants already may have been cleaned up.

Some may have burned, although officials believe that is unlikely. Con Ed knows its transformers, and the oil in them, survived the worst of the trade center fires, because the transformers were working until 7 WTC collapsed.

A third possibility is that the chemicals leaked into soil, groundwater and underground infrastructure, according to the Environmental Protection Agency and Con Ed.

The red granite edifice of 7 World Trade Center, once connected to the twin towers by two slender footbridges, tumbled to the ground in a chain reaction several hours after suicide hijackers crashed into the towers. The attacks sent flaming debris hailing down on nearby buildings, igniting 7 WTC in an unstoppable blaze that leveled it. The collapse crushed the electrical equipment within.

The two destroyed substations – each one-story high and running roughly one-third the length of a city block – housed nine transformers used to reduce high-voltage electricity to the lower levels required by ordinary office and residential buildings.

Ben Damsky of the Electric Power Research Institute, a consortium composed largely of utility operators, said there was nothing unusual about the chemicals in the substations. Battery banks containing sulfuric acid are essential in any sizable substation. Another of the hazardous chemicals, sulfur hexafluoride, is often used as an insulator when space is at a premium.

“Con Ed is a very alert and conscientious and concerned utility,” Damsky said. “They are on top of things.”

The matter is a hot button because of public fears about PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, a cancer-causing compound used as a fire retardant in the lubricating and insulating oil of electrical equipment built before 1977.

The newer of Con Ed’s two trade center substations was considered virtually PCB-free, but the older one contained oil with trace amounts – up to 50 parts per million – according to the utility’s environmental reports.

Under EPA regulations, that ratio isn’t high enough to be a hazard. However, some environmentalists say even tiny amounts of PCBs can cause harm. Unleashed in the environment, the chemicals gradually accumulate in the fat of fish and animals and then move up the food chain to people. People who are exposed to too much can develop cancer.

EPA measurements of airborne PCBs within the 16-acre trade center site and from the surrounding area have so far been below exposure levels shown to cause cancer in animals. A Sept. 14 test of rain water showed slightly higher than normal levels of PCBs.

In addition to air monitoring, EPA has tested dust for PCBs on surfaces at two sites. Eight samples have been taken from nearby Stuyvesant High School and Manhattan Community College. None showed PCB contamination.

EPA has not done soil tests for PCBs.

David Higby of Environmental Advocates, a New York state environmental group, thinks that it should. “At some point,” he said, “those PCBs are going to come to rest in soil.”

The EPA also has not run tests for sulfuric acid and sulfur hexafluoride. The substations contained about 338 gallons of sulfuric acid and 350 pounds of sulfur hexafluoride, according to the utility.

The agency did recover two intact 9-by-52-inch cylinders labeled sulfur hexafluoride. However, neither the EPA nor Con Ed was able to say if that accounts for all of the chemical that had been at the site. Sulfur hexafluoride is suspected of causing neurological problems in humans, according to the environmental nonprofit, Environmental Defense.

Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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