Duane Matters, 9/11 First Responder

Duane Matters is a Nevada Certified Environmental Manager and the Manager of the Environmental Department of the Las Vegas office of a national geotechnical and environmental consulting firm. Before moving to Las Vegas, he was a project manager at AMEC Earth & Environmental (AMEC) where he worked on large-scale environmental projects such as remediation and assessment of artillery and rocket ranges at the Massachusetts Military Reservation, Cape Cod Massachusetts and various CSX Transportation facilities in Michigan, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Prior to his work at AMEC, he worked for several national and regional environmental firms as a project manager.

Mr. Matters has a Bachelors degree in Geological Science from Salem State College in Salem, Massachusetts. He is a Nevada Certified Environmental Manager, Nevada and Utah-licensed Asbestos Consultant and EPA Lead-based Pain Project Designer and Risk Assessor.

While onsite at the WTC from September 2001 through March 2002, Mr. Matters responsibilities included incident command coordination as an EHS and contractor representative at the nightly pre-shift briefing and logistics meetings, ensuring compliance with WTC Site Safety Plan, coordination with subcontractors and incident commanders during recovery operations, updating equipment/material management database, limited oversight of slurry wall drilling operations, Winter Garden stabilization and overseeing a staff of health & safety professionals. Duties also entailed coordinating findings of inspections/observations by OSHA, the New York City Department of Design and Construction, the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management, Liberty Mutual, and other government and contracted agencies and communicating amended work practices to subcontractors. As an “Authorized Photographer” during his months at the WTC, he documented the work progress and the worker’s efforts with thousands of photos. Mr. Matters also salvaged project and miscellaneous paperwork to document the unique aspects of this project required to conduct the rescue efforts, as well as excavation, demolition, and removal of building debris. Some of these photos and artifacts have been shown at the Atomic Testing Museum, to officials of the National September 11th Memorial and Museum, and a “pop-up” museum at the Plaza Hotel & Casino during the 10-year “911 Remembrance” activities in Las Vegas.

A special effort has been made in this presentation to not include graphic photographs of victims of the tragedy; however, some people may be sensitive to this disaster.