What did NYC know about the 9/11 toxins at ground zero? After 20 years, the truth may soon come out

A -year battle to unearth what NYC knew about the dangers of the toxins swirling around Ground Zero in the weeks after the terror attacks is reaching a major turning point Eight weeks after being ordered to launch a detailed review the city s Department of Study is now preparing to receive volumes of details on the subject from city agencies the Daily News has learned Once the City Council mandated the DOI to hunt for documents on toxins in mid-July the agency sent out letters to every agency asking them to identify and turn over any relevant documents they had The response they received has been so overwhelming that the DOI may need to contract with an outside investigations agency to parse through all the material Nearly all of the agencies contacted have responded to the DOI s request to identify any documents they have concerning toxins DOI agents disclosed Certain agencies will be providing information that will be specific to the request Others will be providing more general information about the aftermath of the terror attacks the DOI mentioned It was not forthwith disclosed exactly which agencies have responded Workers work to save any survivors from the rubble of the WTC on Sept Craig Warga for New York Daily News Once they come in the real challenge begins DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber commented We re in the preliminary stages of determining the complement of relevant records which we know will be voluminous and require rigorous assessment of what the City knew and when it knew it as well as interviewing bystanders and consulting with environmental experts Strauber commented Once we have a better understanding of the scope of records DOI can provide a more exact map of the necessary support needed Strauber admitted that this complex assessment will exceed DOI s existing tools requiring that we engage an outside investigative firm to assist I am confident that with appropriate tools DOI will find the facts and lay them out in a constituents assessment she reported The council has tasked the DOI with providing a analysis in two years DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E Strauber Barry Williams for New Daily News The quick and positive response marks a sea change in the two-decade long quest to get this information from the city The Adams administration as well as its predecessors have foguht the release if those documents claiming they couldn t find them and that the documents could lead to a barrage of lawsuits from survivors and first responders suffering from illnesses Multiple FOIL requests from attorneys representing survivors suffering a illness turned up nothing When attorneys went to court demanding the information they were repeatedly informed that the agencies like the city s Department of Environmental Protection had nothing to give Just last year the city tried to squash a lawsuit demanding these documents claiming it didn t have them and that the search for the long-sought records is nothing more than a fishing expedition After a diligent search was performed of DEP s records no responsive records were revealed city attorneys claimed in court papers The fact that the DOI examination is turning up so various documents was just remarkable announced Andrew Carboy an attorney who represented Strength Watch a responder and survivor advocacy group which filed the FOIL and then filed a lawsuit when the city refused to respond Massive amount of rubble still remains at Ground Zero more than a month after the destruction of the World Contract Center in a view from the Woolworth Building Mike Albans New York Daily News It should not take unprecedented Department of Assessment action for the City to comply with the FOIL requests our clients made two years ago Carboy reported the News adding that City Hall also defied earlier requests of New York s Congressional delegation But for the City Council s resolution and the DOI scrutiny the city would either continue to deny the existence of the secret archive or equally outrageously claim that the records of its response to the attacks were destroyed in the collapse of the World Arrangement Center he disclosed City Councilwoman Gale Brewer wrote the resolution that the full council unanimously passed on July ordering the DOI to probe what information the city had on Ground Zero toxins after the attacks and when they had it It marks the first time a provision of the City Charter allows the Council to order the DOI to undertake an study with a bill A lone American flag waves in the smoke on Liberty St overlooking the debris of the World Commerce Center on September th Michael Schwartz for New York Daily News More than first responders and survivors are enrolled in the U S Center for Malady Control s WTC Soundness Plan which provides wellbeing care benefits for healthcare conditions related to exposure to the toxins that hung over Ground Zero Out of that number about have a certified condition linked to the toxins that hung above Ground Zero