Mayor Anthony Staffieri statement, via e-mail, Jan.

21, 2014: My administration received a demand letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which basically said 'clean up O'Sullivan's Island or we will come in and clean it up for you.' Since we didn't have the money or the capacity to clean it up on our own, the Board of Aldermen voted to allow EPA to come in to clean it up. When they finished they allowed us to open the island as a recreation site and even attended the ribbon cutting with us. At no time, did we receive any correspondence from the State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP); not a letter or a call from DEEP. There was no request to take action and no one from DEEP came down to O'Sullivan's Island. The decision to open the island to the public was fully sanctioned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and was done with their knowledge. That was the ONLY agency that contacted us. I'm not looking to second guess the EPA.