EE&G was retained by P&J to assist with the WTC Recovery Operations,and disaster response. As you Might know Disaster recovery (DR) involves a set of policies, tools and procedures to enable the recovery or continuation of vital technology infrastructure and systems following a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery focuses on the IT or technology systems supporting critical business functions, EE&G was opposed to business continuity, which involves keeping all essential aspects of a business functioning despite significant disruptive events. Disaster recovery is therefore a subset of business continuity.
This included all necessary infrastructures to support the removal of evidence from the WTC debris stream. FBI, NTSB and approximately 30 other governmental entities were engaged to support this recovery mission. Besides the horrific attacks and based on the high level scientific needs associated with this work, EE&G was selected to perform specialized environmental support services.
First and foremost, this recovery mission required a safe operation that would not donate another life or limb as part of the 9-11 recovery. Next, there were critical design needs for emphatic health and safety, environmental control, sampling for targeted constituents of concern (including metals, dioxins/furans, radionuclide’s, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, PCBs, asbestos, explosive ordinance, explosive landfill gasses, etc.) and other logistical concerns. The operation was engaged on a formerly closed portion of the Staten Island landfill that had received much local community pressure in prior decades for landfill closure.
The WTC recovery mission re-opened the site to the largest recovery effort in American history. The technical challenges were many, but were quickly assessed, defined and managed under by EE&G under a multi-agency endorsed plan. EE&G facilitated the preparation of this plan, which joined 32 governmental agencies under one technical approach. EE&G’s template became a model for future multi-agency operations.