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LMCCC is now monitoring construction-related air quality around the WTC site
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Tom Kunkel gets thrills from fluctuations in ambient air. As the director of environmental compliance for the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center (LMCCC), Kunkel keeps a close watch on the particulates in downtown's air -- along with virtually every other element of the environment -- to ensure as much clean, quiet living as possible in the area around the World Trade Center (WTC).
But it's reading daily air-quality reports that gets Kunkel particularly keyed up. "December was a neat month because the use of motor vehicles went up and down," he says, eager to point out the fluctuation in particulates during rush hours on December 21, 2005 -- the first of the three-day transit strike. "I couldn't ask for anything better than a mass-transit strike for establishing background [for air monitoring]," he explains.
Kunkel joins the LMCCC from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, (DEC) where he spent eight years directing and enforcing environmental regulations for the New York City region, including 18 months of WTC-site cleanup after 9/11. His qualifications stem from years working for utility and demolition companies, for which he specialized in asbestos abatement and the safe deconstruction of nuclear plants and other potentially hazardous structures.
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| Tom Kunkel is director of environmental compliance for the LMCCC |
In his current post since fall 2005, Kunkel has been hard at work pulling together the components that will ultimately make environmental performance commitments (EPCs) king in Lower Manhattan. Non-compliance, he says, loses work permits, and he wants everyone to know it -- "from the board meeting down to the hole [in the ground]."
"This is the most important thing," Kunkel says. "Everyone's on a construction schedule. Compliance helps keep every project moving. It helps their schedule and helps the environment."
To set Lower Manhattan-specific EPCs and maintain compliance, Kunkel is overseeing several LMCCC initiatives that span air, water, waste, noise, and vibration related to construction. With a total of $9.9 billion in rebuilding projects downtown through 2010, Kunkel is both eager and prudent about getting his program underway.
His current top priority is to get the comprehensive LMCCC air-monitoring program up and running in the outer WTC "quadrant," for which four official monitoring mechanisms are in place. They are located on the rooftops of 1 World Financial Center (Battery Park City), 292 Greenwich St. (WTC south), 80 Catherine St. (Chinatown), and 1 Chase Plaza (Financial District).
Kunkel also is using data from a fifth monitor operated by and located at Pace University, in the Civic Center area. Readings from the LMCCC's monitors also are crosschecked with those from the City Department of Environmental Protection, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other sources.
With monitors in place, Kunkel is establishing a "normal" air-quality baseline, to which data can be compared in coming years, when more major construction projects are underway in and around the WTC site, including the Transportation Hub, Freedom Tower, and WTC Memorial.
Certain levels of particulates in the air are expected, caused by changes in the jet stream, weather shifts (such as wind, rain, and fog), and things like December's transit strike, when vehicles flooded city streets. "That week we knew for sure that the equipment works, because the trends were obvious," Kunkel says.
Kunkel also is sending inspectors into neighborhoods and construction areas to log compliance. In addition to federal EPC adherence, his team checks for unnecessary idling for more than three minutes, use of low-sulfur fuel in vehicles and equipment, dust control, waste management, water runoff, and noise and vibration control.
In many cases, he says, such EPCs are interrelated. For example, vibrations at work sites -- like jackhammering, pile driving, etc. -- can send particulates into the air, particularly if dust is not suppressed by water and regular cleanup.
Another compliance plan in the works will have the support of Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) at on-street checkpoints to log exhaust-pipe size, fuel, and emissions of large vehicles. Proper coordination with the Landmarks and Art Commissions, as well as community outreach, will also be critical EPCs for developers and contractors to see through.
Though Kunkel is still settling into his directorship, his enthusiasm and ambition are apparent as he outlines his program's many facets. He is careful to point out that his duties are not solely for the environment, but also very much tied into economics, real estate development and logistics, and, of course, health, safety, and quality of life. This is particularly acute in a live-work community like Lower Manhattan, he says, where residents and workers walking by construction sites come face to face with noise, vibrations, and other potential disruptions.
Still, Kunkel's optimism prevails, having already seen contractors exceed EPCs for the benefit of the community. "If there's compliance, if they follow EPCs, things won't be too bad," he says. "They'll be pretty good."
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