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Ex-EPA Chief Is Ruled Not Liable for 9/11 Safety Claims
By Robin Shulman
The Washington Post
Wednesday 23 April 2008
New York - Christine Todd Whitman, the former head of the Environmental Protection
Agency, cannot be held liable for assuring residents near the burning detritus
of the World Trade Center after the 2001 attacks that the air was safe to breathe,
a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
Because Whitman did not intend to cause harm, a panel of judges on the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit said, her message did not "shock the
conscience" to the degree necessary to waive her immunity as a federal
official.
The residents, students and office workers say Whitman should be forced to
pay damages to properly clean homes and schools and create a fund to monitor
health. They are considering an appeal, their lawyer said.
"These residents, workers and students continue to get sicker and sicker,
and that's what makes this decision so tragic," said Joel Kupferman, co-counsel
for the plaintiffs.
Whitman, who has always maintained that her agency acted responsibly, said
in a statement, "I am pleased that the court today confirmed what I have
said -- that we at the EPA acted reasonably and made every effort to protect
the people of New York."
Her attorneys had argued that holding Whitman personally liable would prevent
officials from speaking to the public in future crises.
Three days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Whitman told reporters, "The
good news continues to be that air samples we have taken have all been at levels
that cause us no concern."
And on Sept. 18, 2001, she reassured residents that their air "is safe
to breathe and their water is safe to drink." Whitman later testified in
congressional hearings that she was talking about the air of Lower Manhattan
generally, not Ground Zero specifically.
Soon after, many residents went back to their homes without properly cleaning
them, they later reported.
"She caused thousands of residents, workers and first responders to suffer
injury and, in some cases, death, due to unnecessary exposure to toxins released
by the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings," said Rep. Jerrold
Nadler (D-N.Y.), who held hearings on the federal government's management of
the crisis at which Whitman testified.
The EPA's inspector general criticized the agency's handling of the crisis
in a 2003 report, which found that the EPA had no basis for its pronouncements
about air quality.
In February 2006, U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts allowed the lawsuit
against Whitman to proceed and called Whitman's actions "conscience-shocking."
"No reasonable person would have thought that telling thousands of people
that it was safe to return to Lower Manhattan, while knowing that such return
could pose long-term health risks and other dire consequences, was conduct sanctioned
by our laws," she wrote.
Activist residents said they were upset with Tuesday's decision.
"The judgment today seems like carte blanche to allow government environmental
officials to put people in harm's way with little or no accountability,"
said Craig Hall, 39, president of the World Trade Center Residents Coalition,
whose members said their children suffered coughs, eye irritations and nosebleeds
after the attacks.
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