By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
The tedious process of cleaning up mercury contamination at the Pu‘uwai Momi public housing project in Halawa will prevent most families from returning to their homes for at least a few more days.
| Mercury testing
The Department of Health will offer Pu‘uwai Momi residents free urine mercury testing from 8;30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today at the Makalapa Community Center, 99-102 Kalaloa St.
The test will be offered to residents who meet one or more of the following criteria:
 The person has clinical symptoms compatible with mercury poisoning;
The person resides in one of the housing units identified with elevated levels of mercury;
The person is known to have had extensive contact with the mercury.
For information, call 586-4249. |
Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo said yesterday that five of the project’s 27 buildings were expected to be cleared of mercury by late last night and the families would be allowed to return today. But the remaining buildings and their 212 units are being inspected in phases and aren’t expected to be cleared until the end of this week at the earliest, Okubo said.
Okubo said 79 persons, most of them children, had gone to area hospitals as of yesterday to be examined for mercury exposure. There were no reports of serious illnesses relating to mercury poisoning, she said.
Many of Pu‘uwai Momi’s 1,100 residents were forced to leave their homes after elemental mercury was found in homes, on parking lots and grassy areas. The mercury was brought to the project by children who collected the liquid metal at an abandoned pumphouse near Pearl Harbor’s Richardson Field last weekend.
The mercury scare also closed ‘Aiea Elementary School yesterday to allow hazardous material personnel to check for contamination. Many children who live at Pu‘uwai Momi attend the school.
The Department of Education declared the school free of mercury and classes will resume today.
But for hundreds of Pu‘uwai Momi residents, it may take a few more days before life returns to normal. While most were able to find alternate housing, about 60 people had to sleep at a Red Cross emergency shelter at the Halawa District Park gymnasium the past two nights.
Pu‘uwai Momi manager Robyn Gapol said yesterday that housing officials were going door-to-door to find out how many residents remained in their units.
Last night, dozens of kids played basketball in the gym while others slept on cots. Some families used large towels for curtains to provide a bit of privacy.
Katie Williams was about to spend her second night with her seven children and granddaughter. Williams said she’s frustrated because no one is saying when she can return home.
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| Halawa residents T.J. Kapesi, left, Jerome Jones and Vicky Taumua fold sleeping mats after spending the night at Halawa Gym.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser |
She also believes she was led to the evacuation shelter under false pretenses.
"They told us that we’re gonna be tested, so we all came up here. But there was no testing," Williams said. "We all could have stayed home."
‘Aiea Intermediate seventh-grader Queena Aleaga also spent her second night at the evacuation center with her grandparents and uncle. She said she’s homesick.
"It’s kind of uncomfortable because we ain’t got no pillows or anything," she said. "I miss my bed and my TV."
Aleaga said she didn’t touch the mercury, although she knows many other kids who did.
No one is certain how much mercury was brought into the project since Saturday, but it appears to be a substantial amount.
"I think kids have been playing with the mercury for a long time, weeks would be my guess," Health Department director Bruce Anderson said. "I think it was found some time ago. It wouldn’t surprise me if over half the kids in the complex have been exposed to it."
Touching or swallowing mercury is not as hazardous to a healthy person as inhaling the toxic vapors, which can cause loss of memory and intellectual deterioration, Anderson said.
Seven of 18 units identified as questionable had been processed yesterday but only five of those had passed air monitoring. One unit in Building 12 was found to be badly contaminated.
The Navy turned over the pumphouse land to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources in August 1962.
In February 2000, the land was conveyed to the state Department of Defense.Defense spokesman Capt. Charles Anthony said the land was to be returned to the Navy in a land swap. In return, the state would receive a nearby parcel that would be used for a veterans center.
Anthony said the source of the mercury and the amount removed have yet to be determined. He said the abandoned pumphouse had been designated by the federal government for cleanup under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program for Formerly Used Defense Sites. But Anthony wouldn’t say when the cleanup would occur.
Advertiser staff writer Rod Ohira contributed to this report.
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