Mercury cleanup may take weeks
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
It could take weeks before all of the families in a mercury contaminated Halawa housing project can return home, in what state health officials are calling the worst case of mercury contamination in recent history.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Department of Health officials have inspected only half of the 260 units in the Pu'uwai Momi housing project since mercury was discovered there Monday. Thirty units were declared contaminated, but only 12 were cleaned as of yesterday afternoon.
Cinda Quiocho and Willie Naehu carry belongings past the controlled access gate at their Pu'uwai Momi residential complex in Halawa. They were allowed to retrieve the personal items under escort.
The department has to inspect the remaining units before residents can return.
Families in buildings 1 through 5 were allowed to return home yesterday, and residents in the remaining buildings were escorted to their homes to retrieve personal items. A Red Cross spokesman estimated that about half of the 1,100 residents remained in their homes throughout the ordeal.
Health Director Bruce Anderson said he believes most of the residents will be allowed to return "in a few days." But for those units that were declared highly contaminated, he said it may take weeks before they can be cleaned.
Anderson said the primary risk to residents is inhalation of mercury vapors. He said mercury has been found throughout the complex, as well as in many apartments.
"This is probably one of the largest actions we've taken relating to a chemical release of this nature," Anderson said. "I can't think of any other response of this magnitude."
Anderson said he did not know how much the cleanup will cost the state, but said "my guess is we're looking at at least several hundred thousand dollars."
Because of the size of the mercury contamination, the state has asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency for help in the cleanup effort.
To call the cleanup effort tedious would be an understatement. During a tour of the complex yesterday, a worker was seen with a tiny wire brush, scrubbing the groves in a cement sidewalk as a vacuum cleaner sucked up mercury specks.
Anderson said there still is no indication how much mercury was spilled.
The Pu'uwai Momi project was shut down Monday afternoon after mercury was discovered in apartments and splattered along common areas. The mercury was brought to the complex by children who found the liquid metal at an abandoned pumphouse near Pearl Harbor's Richardson Field last weekend.
Since then, about 60 to 70 residents have been forced to live at an evacuation center set up by the Red Cross at the Halawa District Park Gymnasium.
