MANHATTAN, New York – The EPA has approved a decontamination plan that will allow CUNY to finally demolish Fiterman Hall, which has stood in ruins on the edge of ground zero. It is expected to berazed within a year.

Matthew Goldstein, chancellor of CUNY, said that the approval by federal regulatory officials will finally allow the important project to move forward. The 15 story building is part of the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Fiterman Hall was originally constructed in 1959 as an office building, and was given to CUNY by Miles and Shirley Fiterman. The building was in its final stages of renovation for use as an academic building on September 11, 2001. Like most other buildings built during that era, the building contains many asbestos-containing materials. Those materials have complicated the demolition and removal plans for the hall.

The hall was severely damaged when the World Trade Center Towers collapsed that day. Falling rubble tore a hole in the building, set fires inside it and piled debris against its exterior. In 2006, a report stated that asbestos-containing materials remained in Fiterman Hall, and that there were also other contaminants present in the building that were related to the world trade center. Those contaminants include asbestos, silica, lead, PCBs, dioxin and ‘man-made vitreous fibers’ like insulation.

The dormitory authority presented its decontamination plan to the EPA, and was told on Friday that the plan was accepted. The agency concluded that the safeguards presented in the plan will help ‘prevent the occurrence of a situation that may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and the environment”.

Asbestos, the most notable contaminant in the building, becomes a hazard when the materials that contain it are damaged or broken, releasing asbestos fibers into the air. That sort of damage is most likely to happen during demolition or renovation of a building that contains materials made with asbestos. The collapse of the World Trade Center towers released tons of asbestos into the Manhattan air, and the continued presence of damaged buildings and debris represent a continuing health hazard to the people of New York. Asbestos causes mesothelioma, a rare cancer that affects the lining of the lungs and is invariably fatal. It has also been implicated as a substantial risk factor for lung cancer and a number of other cancers and debilitating respiratory illnesses.

Because of the hazards, the EPA requires contractors and building owners to file a demolition plan when preparing to demolish a building. The plan must address concerns about asbestos and show how the demolition will be carried out to avoid releasing asbestos fibers into the atmosphere where they can become a public health hazard.

On Friday, the EPA accepted the decontamination plan filed by the dormitory authority that has responsibility for the building. The project is expected to take four to six months for decontamination and removal of all hazardous substance, followed by another four to six months to complete the deconstruction of the building. It will cost about $16.3 million, and will be carried out by PAL Environmental Safety Corporation of Long Island City, Queens. Work has already begun on the decontamination part of the plan.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Asbestos Abatement, Asbestos Exposure, New York. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.