- NEW YORK - When the World Trade Center crumbled, the spotlight
was on its two majestic towers, not on 7 World Trade Center ñ a
building that stood and collapsed in their shadows.
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- But 7 WTC was toxic.
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- It housed two electrical substations
owned by Con Edison. And they contained 109,000 gallons (413,000 liters)
of oil and hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of potentially dangerous chemicals
set loose when the building fell.
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- Trace amounts of PCBs, a carcinogen,
and larger quantities of sulfuric acid, a possible carcinogen and respiratory
irritant, were among the hazards.
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- Details about some of the pollutants
are contained in reports Con Ed made to the state Department of Environmental
Conservation beginning Sept. 11. The Associated Press recently obtained
the documents from Con Ed.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- A third possibility is that the chemicals
leaked into soil, groundwater and underground infrastructure, according
to the Environmental Protection Agency and Con Ed.
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- 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 electrical equipment within.
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- The two destroyed substations ñ
one-story high and running roughly one-third the length of a city block
ñ housed nine transformers used to reduce high-voltage electricity
to the lower levels required by ordinary office and residential buildings.
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- Ben Damsky of the Electric Power Research
Institute, a research 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.
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- "Con Ed is a very alert and conscientious
and concerned utility," Damsky said. "They are on top of things."
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- 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.
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- The newer of Con Ed's two trade center
substations was considered virtually PCB-free, but the older one contained
oil with trace amounts ñ up to 50 parts per million ñ according
to the utility's environmental reports.
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- 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.
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- EPA measurements of airborne PCBs within
the 16-acre (6.4-hectare) 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.
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- 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.
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- EPA has not done soil tests for PCBs.
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- 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."
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- The EPA also has not run tests for sulfuric
acid and sulfur hexafluoride. The substations contained about 338 gallons
(1,279 liters) of sulfuric acid and 350 pounds (158 kilograms) of sulfur
hexafluoride, according to the utility.
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- The agency did recover two intact 9-by-52-inch
(23-by- 132-centimeter) 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.
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- As for the 109,000 gallons (413,000 liters)
of oil, it's a smallish spill by some standards ñ more than 11 million
gallons (42 million liters) of crude oil came from the 1989 Exxon Valdez
accident, and a recent accident off the Galapagos Islands spilled about
240,000 gallons.
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- The EPA is striving to contain whatever
danger the remaining environmental hazards pose. Workers coming off the
site have their boots washed. Cars and trucks are power-washed and debris
being hauled to piers is wetted down and covered so its dust doesn't fly.
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- http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/
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