HUMAN REMAINS UPDATE 10/31 9:00 PM
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006No remains were recovered today as they continued to sift through fresh fill. The total remains count was actually lowered to 199 as testing determined that 2 of the bone fragments were animal not human.There will meeting tomorrow to discuss moving the testing operation off site. There are now concentrating on getting Pier space in the city and away from Floyd Bennet.
One of the reasons behind moving it off site is that with construction continuing they actually do not have enough space for a proper testing facility to be set up.
The current plan is to continue through Saturday and to be complete with this section of the search by the end of next week.
There is also talk about then taking a two week hiatus until the testing facility issue is resolved.
Because there are so many agencies involved there has been some infighting.
There are also concerns that the DEP is concentrating their testing on asbestos while workers are concerned with
Heavy metals
PCP’s
Volatiles
The workers want to know what they are dealing with so that they know that they are using the proper safeguards.
The DEP insists the current gear is adequate.
We have recently found out that there is a link to the illnesses that some of the WTC recovery workers have encountered with a genetic disorder.
This condition called Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency increases the risk of COPD and lung disease when combined with environmental factors (smoke particles etc)
A simple blood test would determine if any of the new workers have this deficiency and if they do they should not be working on the recovery effort.
Other Issues
Even though there have been WTC items found in the fill under the service road they currently are not planning to excavate it. Instead they are planning to drill pilot test holes.
The reason they are not proceeding with the excavation of the road is that the Port Authority is stating that the road is necessary to continue the construction work.
The bottom line is since WTC items have been found the road should be excavated. Once again this should not be about reconstruction it should not be about money it should be about the proper recovery of remains.
It should also be about holding people responsible. If anything but fresh fill was used on this service road the company contracted to build it should face the appropriate charges.
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While we are on the subject of proper recovery efforts I hope that everyone is aware that none of the debris from the basement of St. Nicholas Hellenic Orthodox Church was ever removed.
Anything that was in the basement was left in the basement and the entire location was black topped over.
Even if there were no remains in the basement (how would we know now) we cannot believe that church artifacts might have been buried under when the church was razed and might now be under blacktop.
It is now one thing after another and we are supposed to believe that things will get better.
The only way things will get better is if an outside team of experts is brought in to coordinate the entire effort.
We hope that everyone will join us as we rally on Thursday at 12:30 at Ground Zero to call for that to take place.
By the way no new elected officials have contacted us to support this effort. Hopefully that will change tomorrow.
We will keep you posted.
Put It Above Ground
If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.
Robert Fritz