Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver today applauded the announcement by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the agency will lead an effort to clean up and test apartment interiors throughout Lower Manhattan, where residents and workers continue to express concern about the effects of substances spread throughout the area by the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on September 11.

Speaker Silver has convened two legislative hearings to highlight environmental issues in Lower Manhattan in the aftermath of 9/11, and he has been working closely with city, state and federal officials to address these matters.

"Nearly eight months after the terrorist attacks and the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers, residents and workers in Lower Manhattan are still uncertain and anxious regarding indoor and outdoor air quality," Silver said. "I am pleased that the EPA is responding to our concerns, because addressing these issues is vital to the well-being, stability and resurgence of the residential and business community here."

Shortly after the terrorist attacks, Silver chaired an Assembly hearing to analyze the response of the appropriate city, state and federal agencies to the environmental emergency near ground zero. Seven months after the attacks, the issue of air quality was still a major concern for residents and workers, and Silver and other Assembly members convened a second hearing on the matter April 12.

At the April 12 hearing, EPA Region Two Acting Deputy Administrator Kathleen Callahan testified that the EPA was considering paying for the interior cleanup of residential and office buildings in Lower Manhattan. Silver wrote to EPA Administrator Christie Whitman last week, calling for an immediate commencement of the clean-up effort.

Silver is a life-long resident of Lower Manhattan, and his legislative district includes the World Trade Center site and the downtown financial district. His office is located a few blocks from ground zero.