WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency spent $27 million over three months to decontaminate Capitol Hill offices after the anthrax attack of October, 2001, examining 10,000 samples from 26 buildings, according to a congressional report released Tuesday.
The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, generally gave the EPA high marks for an effective cleanup operation, while recommending the agency take some steps to tighten up its cost oversight practices.
On Oct. 15, 2001, just a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, an anthrax-bearing letter was opened in the office of then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Traces of the toxin were found in other areas of the Capitol, apparently the result of the exposure of other letters in the mail system, and thousands of workers were treated with antibiotics as a precaution.
The 1 million-square-foot Hart Senate Office Building where Daschle's office was located was declared safe three months later after it was decontaminated with chlorine dioxide, a toxic gas. Five people around the country, including two postal workers, died from the attacks, but no Capitol Hill employees were harmed.