KIRSTEN DANIS
NY Post Online
November 2, 2001 --
The city is exploring building a giant umbrella over ground zero so cleanup can continue through the winter, an official told the City Council yesterday.
"We actually did have experts come in who were involved in [England's] Millennium Dome," said Robert Adams, safety director for the city Department of Design and Construction (DDC).
The Millennium Dome was a giant sphere built to celebrate the year 2000 and house a World's Fair-style science exhibit and cultural display.
A handful of firms have drawn up proposals to construct a big roof protecting ground zero from rain and snow while still allowing smoke to vent into the sky, another city official later confirmed.
The dome would have to be open on all sides to allow equipment and trucks access to the World Trade Center site.
It also would not fully shelter workers from winter's freezing temperatures and brisk winds.
Adams revealed the idea while testifying about ground zero air and water quality before the council's Environmental Protection Committee.
But a DDC spokesman said the idea is still in its infancy.
"The issue is being assessed, but it's by no means certain that anything could be designed or built by this winter," said DDC assistant commissioner Matthew Monahan.
Experts from federal, state and city agencies doing daily environmental tests said they have not detected dangerous levels of poison in the air outside ground zero.
People who live and work around the site have complained about sore throats, headaches, coughs and other ailments.
"That's not asbestos that's making that happen to us. That's smoke in the air," said city Department of Health assistant commissioner Jessica Leighton.
But Councilwoman Kathryn Freed, whose district includes the site and who now has bronchitis, hammered away at the agency heads to look at the cumulative effect of even low levels of toxins in the air.
And she repeatedly asked the panel to explain why firefighters are complaining of "World Trade Center cough" and showing early signs of lung disease.
While levels outside the site were called safe, workers occasionally have been exposed to unsafe levels of dioxins, carbon monoxide, heavy metals and other poisons, said Pat Clark, Occupational Safety and Health Administration Region 2 administrator.
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