New York Times article clipping regarding WTC study, March 2007

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document ZZz? < AV

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f*- A< CHMR ALAN JAY GERSON lower' MANHATTAN RE-DEVELOPMENT QOUNaL MEMBER, I" DISTRICT MANHATTAN COMMITTEES DISTRICT OFHCE THECOUNCIL 49-51 CHAMBERS STREET. SUTE 429 NEW YORK, NY 10007 (212) 788-7722 FAX (212) 788-7727 ' OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

OVERSIGHT ^INVESTIGATION ft The City ofNew York PARKS «c RECREATION QTY HALL OFFICE 250 BROADWAY, ROOM 1845 YOUIH SERVICES NEW YORK, NY 10007 (212) 788-7259 ‘ SELECT COMMITTEE -

geisoo^ counciLnyc. ny.us WATERFRONT

October 10, 2006

Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. Commissioner of Health & Mental Hygiene 125 Worth Street New .York, N.Y. 10013 , "■■■J

Dear Commissioner Frieden:

As you may remember, in March and April of 2004, the New York City Council S Committee on Health (chaired by then Council Member and now. Speaker Christine ' Quinn) and the Committee on Lower Manhattan Redevelopment, the Committee I chair, held joint hearings on the subject of “Air Quality in New York City following 9-11”.

At the April 15*** hearing witnesses representing the New York City Department of Health ' and Mental Hygierie (DOHMH), the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the New York City Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEM) testified. Those agency witnesses were asked numerous questions as to how decisions were made regarding the quality of the air in Lower Manhattan, and particularly, what communications were had between the City’s Departments and the federal government oh the subject of the air quality in Lower Manhattan and precautions necessary for the , . safety of workers at Ground Zero. <

The Committee on Lower Manhattan Redevelopment has recently become aware of the existence of at least two documents which apparently shed some light on what the federal EPA was telling the City regarding the air quality in Lower Manhattan and at Ground ' Zero and what City agencies and the Mayor’s Office were thinking regarding the “re­ opening” of Lower Manhattan. Press reports describe at least two memos, one from the United States EPA to an associate commissioner at the City’s DOHMH dated October 5, 2001 regarding the air quality at Ground Zero, and the other, dated October 6, 2001, from , Kelly McKinney, an associate commissioner at DOHMH, describing a disagreement between City Departments regarding the air quality after 9-11.

The Committee believes that these two documents should have been delivered to it after J

the hearing on April 15,2004 and certainly in response to the questions and document request forwarded to the City Departments in October 2004. They were not.

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