Pearl Harbor mercury clean-up planned

By James Gonser
Advertiser Central Bureau

The state Department of Health this morning will outline its plans to clean up an abandoned pump house near Pearl Harbor that was the source of a mercury contamination discovered March 12 at the Pu'uwai Momi public housing project.

That incident left 71 of the project's 260 apartments contaminated, and many of the nearly 1,100 residents were forced to find other housing. Some families had to live in a Red Cross emergency shelter at H?lawa District Park gymnasium for nearly a week.

Mercury was carried by curious children from the pump house to the housing complex, likely leading to many smaller spills found since then at several sites across O'ahu, the state said.

Health Department information officer Janice Okubo said details of how the cleanup will be conducted and a timetable for the effort will be released at the 10:30 a.m. meeting, followed by a tour of the site.

Health Director Bruce Anderson and deputy director Gary Gill will attend the meeting.

The question of responsibility for paying for the cleanup and liability for the spill will likely be settled in the courts, Gill has said, and there are "potentially multiple responsible parties." To clean the pump house as quickly as possible, the Health Department will get the work done and worry about paying for it later, Gill has said.

The Navy estimated that as much as 1 1/2 gallons of mercury may have been left inside the switches and gauges at the old water-pumping station, which was deeded to the state in 1962.

The pumping house has belonged to the state Department of Defense since February, when the title was turned over by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Earlier this month Carroll Cox, president of EnviroWatch Inc., an environmental watchdog group, asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Honolulu Police Department to investigate possible criminal violations related to the mercury spill.

Cox says that state and federal agencies knew mercury was present at an abandoned pump house and that it should have been cleaned up long before children took the toxic metal from the site.

Cox charges that a cover-up is going on to divert blame for the spill. The agencies deny the allegations.

Elemental mercury is an odorless liquid metal. It can cause burns to the skin and eyes; if inhaled, it can lead to pulmonary edema and damage to nerves and kidneys.