Ex-EPA Chief Defends Post-Sept. 11 Role

WASHINGTON — Ex-EPA chief Christie Whitman was bombarded by boos and a host of accusations Monday at a hearing into her assurances that it had been safe to breathe the air around the fallen World Trade Center.

The confrontation between the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency and her critics grew heated at times.

Some members of the audience shouted in anger, only to be gaveled down by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who led the hearing.

For three hours Whitman faced charges from Nadler and others that the EPA’s public statements after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks gave people a false sense of safety.

Whitman maintained the government warned those working on the toxic debris pile to use respirators, while elsewhere in lower Manhattan the air was safe to the general public.

“There are indeed people to blame,” Whitman said. “They are the terrorists who attacked the United States, not the men and women at all levels of government who worked heroically to protect and defend this country.”

Since the attacks, independent government reviews have faulted the EPA’s handling of the immediate aftermath and the agency’s long- term cleanup program for nearby buildings.

Nadler, a Democrat whose district includes the World Trade Center site, called the hearing after years of criticizing federal officials for what he says was a negligent and incomplete cleanup.

He said the Bush administration “has continued to make false, misleading and inaccurate statements and refused to take remedial actions, even in the face of overwhelming evidence.”

Whitman’s responses were mostly calm and deliberate.

But under questioning from Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., Whitman angrily raised her voice, saying she based her statements on “what I was hearing from professionals,” not the whims of politicians.

She has long insisted that her statements that the “air is safe” were aimed at those living and working near ground zero, not those who toiled on the toxic pile that included asbestos.

“Was it wrong to try get the city back on its feet as quickly as possible in the safest way possible?” she said. “Absolutely not.”

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary subcommittee, said he worried that assigning blame to Whitman could mean, in future crises, that “officials might default to silence.

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