Officials sued over handling of mercury spill
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
A Halawa woman is suing a variety of federal and state officials, claiming they were negligent in the way they handled or failed to handle a mercury spill at an abandoned pump house near the Puuwai Momi Housing complex near Aloha Stadium in March 2001.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court on behalf of Diana Bounds and her children Kekoa Marinas-Bounds and Kekai Marinas by attorney Joseph Ryan, is the first to be filed by anyone affected by the spill.
The suit claims officials knew about a mercury spill at an abandoned pump house near Richardson Field but failed to take action to prevent children living nearby from playing with the poisonous substance.
Among those named in the lawsuit were Bruce Anderson, head of the state Department of Health and Maj. Gen. Edward Correa Jr., head of the state Department of Defense.
The suit seeks special, general and punitive damages, with the amounts to be determined at trial.
The lawsuit claims that Anderson was aware of the problem prior to March 12, 2001, the day that emergency response teams were called and sealed off the area after receiving reports that children were found playing with the spilled mercury.
The suit claims Anderson took no action and did not ask for the media's help in alerting the public to the problem.
Anderson could not be reached to comment yesterday.
Correa also knew of the problem in August or September 2000, but took no action to recover the spilled mercury or to seal off the pump house to keep children from coming in contact with it, according to the lawsuit. As a result, more than a gallon of the spilled mercury was tracked or carried into homes, schools and playgrounds in the Puuwai Momi Housing area, according to the lawsuit.
Correa was out of state yesterday and could not be reached to comment.
The lawsuit said the incident left Bounds fearing for the lives of herself and her children, one of whom suffers from a rheumatic condition, and that emergency services responders did a poor job of allaying those fears.
Bounds said in the lawsuit that her shoes and socks were seized from her at one point during the emergency cleanup for fear they had been contaminated with mercury. A second pair of shoes and socks were then seized because emergency workers gave her permission to return to her home to check on the family's cat but did not warn her that her home might be contaminated with mercury, according to the lawsuit.
Bounds said in the lawsuit that she had cold symptoms at the time of the emergency response to the mercury spill but due to a lack of information from emergency officials, concluded she was seriously ill from mercury poisoning and might die.
Some 1,100 residents were forced to evacuate their homes, some for as long as two weeks, and were allowed to return following a $600,000 clean-up.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
