By Thomas Tracy, Leonard Greene
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — City council leaders are pushing for an $4.5 million in city budget money to fund a report about 9/11 toxins — and to finally determine when city officials first learned air quality at Ground Zero was dangerous.
The elected officials made the funding request ahead of a council Oversight and Investigations Executive Budget hearing on Tuesday seeking the release of all documents related to post-9/11 air quality.
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In February, City Council Speaker Julie Menin joined Councilwoman Gale Brewer, advocates and labor leaders to demand the city disclose all records related to toxins surrounding Ground Zero. That push came after an internal memo surfaced revealing city officials anticipated health-related lawsuits in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
“Thousands of families, including my own, are still waiting for answers about what the city knew about the environmental toxins that sickened or killed our loved ones,” Menin said in a statement. “The City Council has continually demanded full transparency and accountability. Now, we’re fighting for additional funding in the budget that will allow the city to finally complete and release this long-overdue report.”
Last year, the council passed a resolution by Brewer directing the city’s Department of Investigation to determine what city officials knew and when they knew it and submit a report to the council by July 2027.
“Early analysis of the toxins that engulfed lower Manhattan and northern Brooklyn could lead to medical breakthroughs for those still struggling with 9/11 illnesses and any further delay is unconscionable,” Brewer said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Investigation said agency officials have been requesting $4 million in funding from the city to carry out the study.
“DOI cannot begin this mandated work until necessary funding is secured,” she said.
For years, city officials claimed they couldn’t find any documents about what and when City Hall knew about the dangers of the 9/11 toxins swirling around Ground Zero.
That was until last year, when the city’s Department of Environmental Protection discovered 68 boxes of information that could be pivotal in learning more about what first responders and survivors were exposed to.
In 2023, attorney Andrew Carboy, who is representing the families of victims of 9/11-related illness victims, and 9/11 Health Watch, requested records from the DEP about the city’s response to the collapse of the World Trade Center, along with historical documents and disaster preparation materials.
Specifically, he and the 9/11 Health Watch wanted to know why then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani requested liability protection from toxic exposure even as the city repeatedly reassured the public that air quality remained “safe and acceptable.”
The DEP discovered the documents in November, while Mayor Eric Adams was still in office.
The Adams administration as well as its predecessors have fought the release of past 9/11 studies and documents, claiming they couldn’t find them.
The city has also repeatedly said it was worried about a barrage of lawsuits from survivors and first responders suffering from 9/11 illnesses if the documents were released.
Last month, officials said many of the boxes were discovered during a remodeling project and “carpet installation” at the city’s DEP offices.
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