‘A moral injury’: City sued over not releasing information on Lower Manhattan air quality danger after 9/11 Advocates for victims of the 9/11 terror attacks have for years been demanding information from New York City about when and what it knew about the danger of City Council Speaker Julie Menin speaks at a February press conference urging the city to release all information related to what it knew about the air quality after the 9/11 attack.Advocates for victims of the 9/11 terror attacks have for years been demanding information from New York City about when and what it knew about the danger of breathing air around the World Trade Center after the towers crumbled. seeking risk assessments the city performed immediately after the attack, communications between city agencies and between the city and Congress and what basis the city had for telling the public that the air in lower Manhattan immediately following the attacks was so safe that life could essentially go back to normal.Advocates for victims and their families say they aren’t pushing for the release of this information so survivors have new grounds to sue the city“This fight isn’t about money. This fight isn’t about victims’ compensation. This fight is about answers,” Andrew Carboy, an attorney for 9/11 Health Watch, said. “This is a moral injury case. The answers are so important because this country is a democracy. One of the foundations of our democracy is open government and transparency. When people don’t trust their government, that’s not stabilizing.” He said he believed the city’s release of the information 9/11 Health Watch believes the city’s withholding should be considered a national issue. “This is the most significant event in New York City history, and one of the most significant events in our nation’s history,” Carboy said. “We went to war for 20 years over this. Tens of thousands of American men and women lost their lives in that effort. Tens of thousands have become sickened by the pollutants in lower Manhattan after the collapse of the World Trade Center.” The plaintiffs allege that the city has consistently denied the group’s FOIL requests, telling advocates it didn’t have the information being requested and couldn’t search its records for it.to then Deputy Mayor Robert Harding, showing the city lobbied the White House and Congress for liability protection while publicly claiming the air was safe. The memo says the city’s Law Department estimated that 10,000 of the 35,000 eligible people would file suit against the city for a list of potential reasons, including “health advisories causing individuals to return to the area too soon.” The October memo, advocacy groups said shows the city intentionally hid information about the air quality, at a Feb. press conference.“This was a push to get New York City back on its feet at the expense of overlooking human health concerns,” Carboy said. “Now, they’re denying they have any records from September, October, November, and December of 2001. How could they not have those records? It absolutely makes no sense.” Carboy said documents he has obtained show city agencies were directed to preserve their records from the time “indefinitely” and that the Law Department scanned them. The city’s Law Department told amNewYork Law it was currently in the process of creating a public portal that will house records related to 9/11 air quality and health risks. The department declined to respond directly to additional questions on when the portal would be up or what types of information it would contain. But, the issues don’t end at fulfilling the FOIL requests, advocates said. The city also needs to provide the Department of Investigation with the $4 million it’s requested to carry out a currently unfunded City Council-mandated investigation into the matter. Carboy noted that, despite 9/11 Health Watch filing FOILS and a suit against the Department of Environmental Protection, the agency only released those 68 boxes of records after the council passed legislation requiring the investigation, crediting the DOI’s teeth with the city’s compliance. City Hall did not respond to amNewYork Law’s question on whether it planned to fund that investigation. The Department of Investigation declined to comment on the investigation’s progress. Council Member Gale Brewer, who authored the legislation requiring the investigation, has requested to launch a probe into the matter. She said she was frustrated by the delay in the release of the files and that Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Corporation Counsel Steven Banks should “put everyone in a room” to settle the matter. Council Member Gale Brewer speaks at a February press conference urging the city to release all information related to what it knew about the air quality after the 9/11 attack. “The mayor should put everybody in the room and say, ‘Let’s get this done. Let’s find all the boxes. Let’s see what’s available,’” Brewer said.Isabella Gallo covers courts and law for amNewYork Law. 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