By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

People fascinated by the dry touch of a silver-colored liquid brought to a Halawa public housing complex Saturday had no idea they were playing with mercury.

But the metallic element today sent 36 to 50 people, mostly school children, to hospitals for mercury exposure treatment, according to police. It also will cause closure of Aiea Elementary School tomorrow and shut down the Pu‘uwai housing project, resulting in the evacuation of kids and parents to the Halawa Gym at Halawa District Park tonight.

“I bet every household has got at least one kid who touched it,” Pu‘uwai Momi resident Mika‘ele “Bruddah” Kahalewai, 20, said of the mercury contamination at the 27-building, 260-unit housing project .

The mercury, which was found by kids at an abandoned Pearl Harbor pumping station on Saturday, spread to elementary and intermediate schools in Aiea, Makalapa Neighborhood Playground and at least one residence on Pupupuhi Street in Waipahu.

Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Richard Soo and other officials today could not say how much mercury had been taken, but Soo said mercury was found in 22 units in Pu‘uwai Momi project and the project’s common areas, including the parking lot and sidewalks.

Pacific Environmental Corp. crews yesterday were cleaning up the mercury with vacuum machines.

Aiea Elementary School was the most affected area outside the housing complex.

Ten to 20 Aiea Elementary students were known to be exposed to the mercury, according to Aiea Elementary School principal Alfred Navares. The Department of Education will close the school tomorrow to allow hazardous material personnel to check the site for contamination.

The DOE reported that 10 students at three other schools — Aiea Intermediate, Aiea High and Makalapa Elementary — were also sent to the hospital today. Those schools are open for classes tomorrow.

“We have a major health concern and want to keep it contained,” Assistant Police Chief Boisse Correa said.

Precautions to take

Mercury can cause burns to the skin and eyes and if inhaled or ingested, it may be harmful. Any contacted area should be flushed with running water and contaminated clothing and shoes should be bagged and discarded, officials said.

Police closed off the housing complex, preventing anyone from going in or coming out, at about 2 p.m. As children arrived home from school, firefighters and police asked them if they had any contact with the mercury. Those that did were examined by paramedics.

A Red Cross shelter was set up at the Halawa Gym for the housing project residents.

“There’s no excuse for this,” said Bernadette Chung, president of the Pu‘uwai Momi Association. “Those kids don’t have any reason for being there (in the abandoned building).”

A Waipahu boy visiting his grandmother at Pu‘uwai Momi over the weekend brought home mercury in a small plastic container, spreading the contamination threat, Soo said.

Soo said the mercury came from the pumping station near the marina below Richardson Recreation Center on state land that is adjacent to Pearl Harbor Navy Base.

“Everything in there is leaking,” Soo said of the building. “We surmise the gauges contained mercury to do pressure readings. Somebody broke it. Mercury is splattered on the floor.”

Military says property is state's

Navy Lt. Cdr. Jane Campbell said today “the property involved with this, the pump hose site where the kids were said to have found the mercury, is state property.”

She said it was military property, but it was transferred to the state several years ago and was to have been cleaned up if necessary by the state and not the Navy. Capt. Charles Anthony, spokesman for the state Department of Defense, said the site was about to be returned to the Navy in a land swap.

Jordan Williams, 15, an Aiea High freshman who did not go to school today, was at the abandoned pumping station on Saturday. “We were catching scorpions,” Williams said. “One kid showed us where (the mercury) was. It was all on the floor.”

Williams said he and two other boys scooped up the mercury. He brought his back in a sandwich bag, Williams added.

“It was just something to play with,” he said. “We were playing with ‘em at the park.”

When asked how much mercury was brought back, Williams said, “choke,” meaning a lot.

Children played with mercury at park

Most of the Puuwai Momi children came into contact with the mercury Saturday at Makalapa Neighborhood Park, residents said.

“We never thought it was harmful,” Kahalewai said. “There were kids all over with little vials playing with it. Some guys had it in their freezer.”

Ronald Lopes, 18, even took a sample to work with him today.

“It looked like something out of the movie Terminator 2, you could put it on your hand and it didn’t get wet. If you dropped it, it broke into little balls. I took it to work and showed it to my friends and they knew it was mercury so I got rid of it.”

Lopes said his 10-year-old cousin, Alikai Jones, who attends Waikele Elementary School got the mercury from kids at the playground, who had it stored in a plastic school lunch box.

Except for a rash on his neck, Lopes said he isn’t feeling any ill-effects from handling the mercury.

News of the mercury problems began at Aiea Elementary this morning when officials reported to police that a student brought a bottle containing mercury to the school. Navares said the jar contained droplets of the liquid metal.

Navares said the boy did not know what he had in the jar, but said he got the mercury during the weekend at Makalapa Park. The teacher sent the jar and student to the office and police were notified.

As far as he knew, Navares said no other student brought mercury to the school today.

“Nothing was actually exposed at school, except that bottle and it was capped,” Navares said.

Firefighters went to Pu‘uwai Momi at 11:13 a.m. today.

Less than handful affected at Makalapa

Ray Fujii, principal at Makalapa Elementary, said only three of about 700 children at his school came in contact with the mercury.

The three, all attending on geographic exemptions from the Aiea elementary attendance area, did not bring any of the material to Makalapa School, he said.

A former science teacher, Fujii said he told the boys the material was extremely volatile, and that it was possible to breathe fumes that would be invisible to the eye, and that it could be absorbed into the body through the skin.

Fujii said he sent a brief note home with other students to alert families to the situation.

According to police, Kapiolani Medical Center-Pali Momi and St. Francis Medical Center-West treated the children and some adults for mercury exposure.

Emergency Medical Services district chief Mandy Shiraki said city ambulances transported seven children to Pali Momi after they reported swallowing some mercury. He said four were Aiea High School students, one from the Waipahu area, and two who were picked up at the Red Cross shelter at Halawa District Park gym.

Pali Momi spokeswoman Elizabeth Ahana tonight would not say how many children were brought to the hospital, but she said they were all treated for a “non-toxic exposure” to mercury and released.

Advertiser staff writers Curtis Lum, Walter Wright and Yasmin Anwar contributed to this report.