[ThePythonicCow]

At first blush, I didn't make sense of your post ... I didn't see where anyone was blaming the EPA for the pollution, nor advocating that we abandon lower Manhattan to the dark side of the moon.

But on second thought, since when does the EPA get a monopoly on measuring air quality. If I have a toxic spill in my house, I don't wait for the EPA to tell me to keep my kids from playing in it. I take measures myself to deal with it.

It's the Pygmalion affect. Start doing stuff for people they should be doing themselves, and eventually they end up angry as hell at you for not doing something.

[OldFriend]

What could have been done? The buildings were pulverized.....among the dust was airplanes, buildings, PEOPLE........

The blame belongs to the animals who flew those planes.

[!1776!]

But on second thought, since when does the EPA get a monopoly on measuring air quality.

You are correct - they don't. The may have done some additional maesurements due to 9/11, but the base air quality monitoring netwrok is likely run by the state.

This is from 1998, most recent I could find. While this doesn't show that there are monitors at ground zero, it does show that the state has the capabilities and resources to measure for several contaminants including toxics.

New York State Air Quality Monitoring (1998)