Mercury found at Wai'anae home
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Another case of mercury contamination on O'ahu was discovered yesterday evening at a home in Wai'anae. Officials were trying to discover its source and prevent it from spreading.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
State health officials said they did not know the source of the mercury that was found in a driveway and in a pickup truck in front of a house at 86905 Hale Ekahi Drive.
A tech worker checks Chanel Walker, 10, for mercury contamination in Wa'ianae.
The Honolulu Fire Department and the state Health Department had the house sealed off. Workers from the PENCO Pacific Environmental Corp. were cleaning up the site.
The people inside the house declined to identify themselves, but a woman inside said no one who lived there had brought the mercury there.
"Someone must have thrown it," the unidentified woman said.
Officials did not know the source or amount of the mercury. Representatives of the Coast Guard were on their way to the house last night, to determine if mercury had entered storm drains.
Officials at the site were attempting to keep the people in the house inside and prevent curious onlookers from entering.
State Health Director Bruce Anderson said it was not known if the mercury contamination was related to a mercury spill Friday at a neighborhood park in Waipi'o or a larger contamination discovered at the Pu'uwai Momi public housing project March 12 in Halawa. Both those sites are in central O'ahu.
