A records request more than two years old about the city’s response to the air quality concerns after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will not be answered by Mayor Eric Adams, who was an NYPD lieutenant at the time.
It represents the 10th time the mayor’s office extended the deadline to respond to an extensive 28-part request for files and records from the aftermath of 9/11 and the decisions to reopen lower Manhattan. That inquiry was made in 2023.
What You Need To Know
The request for documents about the city’s response to the air quality concerns in lower Manhattan was made more than two years ago
The mayor’s office just extended its time to respond for the 10th time
The respondents are currently reviewing documents turned over by the Department of Environmental Protection, after long-denying having any
The latest extension takes the deadline to respond to March 2026. At that point, Adams will no longer be mayor. It will be Zohran Mamdani.
“Mayor Mamdani can turn the page on the 25th anniversary of this horror and release the city’s September 11th archive,” said Andy Carboy, the lawyer who filed the records request and suits on behalf of his clients.
Carboy’s clients include family members of people who died from 9/11-related illnesses, along with a nonprofit, 9/11 Health Watch.
NY1 reached out to the Mamdani transition team about how it plans to handle the pending documents request.
“Twenty four years since the September 11th terror attacks, thousands of New Yorkers have and continue to suffer from Ground Zero-related respiratory and other illnesses,” said Dora Pekec, the Mamdani transition spokeswoman. “Our team will be looking into this more closely.”
Meanwhile, Adams’ office has repeatedly sent statements to NY1 stating that Adams “has been unwavering in his commitment to ensuring victims, their families, first responders, and survivors receive the care and services they deserve.”
A spokeswoman on Monday said she cannot comment on pending litigation, but acknowledged the process of turning documents over has begun. However, that is not with the mayor’s office.
The team that filed the request for documents is currently reviewing more files released by another agency, the Department of Environmental Protection, also known as the DEP.
The DEP initially denied the request, saying: “This agency does not have the records requested.”
That was in January 2024. Andy Carboy appealed that ruling.
In that process, and even through a second suit filed by Carboy, the DEP representatives maintained it had no files, even referring to it as a “fishing expedition.”
However, this fall, the agency reversed course, informing Carboy that it has boxes relevant to his request.
“This is September 11th. We’re not looking for some obscure zoning rule from the 1800s. This is the biggest event in city history,” Carboy said.
Carboy said he estimates there are more than 300,000 files in the 68 boxes that are being turned over. Last month, Carboy and his team reviewed more than 20 of the boxes.
On Monday, a spokesperson from the city’s Law Department confirmed Carboy would be reviewing more of them.
So far, Carboy said the documents mostly revolved around testing for asbestos and other toxins.
Despite the DEP’s denial that it had any records, NY1 had found testimony from DEP’s commissioner in 2002 that the agency had conducted thousands of tests, according to a transcript from a hearing before some U.S. senators.
“They were all over the place,” said Carboy, describing the test results he reviewed. “They were highly variable.”
Carboy said they also found a 2002 record from the city’s Law Department.
“These original World Trade Center documents have been collected and scanned by the New York City Law Department. DO NOT DISPOSE OF THESE DOCUMENTS: they must be preserved to serve as evidence in the event future WTC-related legal actions are brought against the City,” said part of the memo.
NY1 asked the DEP why these documents disappeared for so long if they were supposed to be preserved. A DEP spokesperson referred NY1 to the Law Department.
When asked the same question, a spokesperson there declined to comment because of the pending litigation.
“I don’t think I’ve been so angry as an attorney in my entire career,” Carboy said.
Carboy submitted a request with the courts for interviews, “taking sworn testimony from the officials responsible” for the changing responses of DEP documents existing.