EPA Plans to Test 9-11 Dust

The Environmental Protection Agency has offered its final plan for testing dust left from the World Trade Center collapse in Lower Manhattan. WNYC's Kathryn Herzog reports.

The $7 million plan calls for testing of any dust lingering in private homes and businesses south of Canal Street and west of Pike and Allen streets. The tests are for asbestos, lead and other toxins left over from the World Trade Center attacks nearly four years ago.

New York lawmakers including Senator Hillary Clinton and Congressman Jerald Nadler, derided the plan as too little too late. Nadler has called for a more expanded testing area, and more extensive testing of buildings hit with the blowing clouds of dust.

The EPA's review panel on air pollution from the Trade Center was created after lawmakers complained the agency prematurely assured New Yorkers it posed no health threat. The EPA intends to end the review panel's work next month.