WTC and the Environment
by John F. Baker -- Publishers Weekly, 3/18/2002
Many New Yorkers, particularly those living near ground zero after the September 11 attack, have been worried about the impact on the city's air and water--and according to a book just signed at the New Press, they have every reason to be, despite official reassurances. Colin Robinson at the press just signed Daily News columnist and author Juan Gonzalez for a book called Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse and is rushing publication to have copies in stores by June. He signed world rights from agent Frances Goldin for what he says will be a swift, short, "interventionist" title. Gonzalez learned, says Robinson, that despite comforting words from former mayor Rudy Giuliani and Christie Whitman of the Environmental Protection Agency, there were dangerously high levels of toxic material in the air downtown, and even higher levels inside the buildings to which people were trying to return. EPA tests of water in the Hudson after the attack also showed extensive contamination with PCBs from spilled oils. Gonzalez was taken off the story by the paper after official pressure, says Robinson, but continued to investigate it on his own.
