I think what makes this article stand out from any other that we have read was that it’s a critique of the program that was implemented after a problem occurred. It was disappointing to read how ineffectively the pollution was handled by the government given that this was one of the greatest catastrophes in the United States. I think that the EPA did expect much debris and pollution, but clearly underestimated those consequences.
I did not know much about the efforts the government undertook to clean Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn until reading this piece, but I was left disappointed with how little the EPA did. Reflecting on what others wrote, I agree that this is the government’s responsibility to address these problems because it is the government’s job to protect the people — which is not limited to only terrorist actions and military acts; it needs to keep the people safe from pollutants and increase awareness for growing scarcities of resources. This also goes to say that the government should do a better job at performing tasks that it’s currently undertaking — such as having done a better job at cleaning the air systems in buildings.
