9/11 'Harding Memo' Unearthed, NYC Council Members Call For Investigation

NEW YORK CITY — Two New York City council members are calling for an investigation after a newly unearthed memo revealed city officials had concerns about toxic exposure at Ground Zero following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

City Councilwoman Gale Brewer and Council Speaker Julie Menin were joined by attorneys and advocates at a press conference at City Hall on Thursday.

They are collectively asking the city's Department of Investigation to provide all 9/11-era air quality records and toxin results in Lower Manhattan.

The unearthed documents, dubbed the “Harding memo,” was sent to Deputy Mayor Robert Harding in October 2001 around a month after the attacks.

The memo warned of possible future lawsuits from first responders and survivors due to dust and toxin in the area around Ground Zero. City officials estimated around 35,000 potential claims as a result of the attacks.

The city assured residents and first responders at the time that the air quality in Lower Manhattan was safe to breathe.

Brewer and Menin want the Mamdani administration to help fund the DOI investigation to find out what the city really knew about the air quality and toxic results.

"We in Lower Manhattan were told, not only by the federal EPA, but by the city of New York, that the air was safe to breathe, we stayed in Lower Manhattan, as a result thousands and thousands of first responders and downtown residents have become sick with cancer, many of whom have died," Menin told reporters. "It is unconscionable that the city of New York did not take responsibility for basically lying to not only first responders, but to the whole downtown community."

Around 81,000 people suffer from 9/11-related health conditions including respiratory illnesses and cancers due to the toxic exposure.

Brewer and Menin said an DOI investigation could cost around $6 million. If they were to get additional funding, a potential investigation could be completed by the middle of next year.

"We really need to see all the possible documents from the city, so that survivors and their families can have some satisfaction - and that's what the full DOI investigation, as required by my law, will give us, and them," Brewer said in a statement to ABC New York.