PAWTUCKET -- Wanda Narvaez thought her life was rid of mercury after her home was sanitized and cleared of the toxic metal last year.
But, according to recent tests of her Sayles Avenue home and the Lawn Terrace Apartments on Pleasant Avenue, she may have been wrong.
"I was shocked," she said. "I thought we were all set. I thought that was it."
Some areas contaminated during a mercury spill last year still carry high levels of the metal, lawyer Mark Dana, of Providence, said. Dana represents about 50 of the 147 residents displaced for months after the contamination was discovered in October 2004.
The apartment complex was contaminated with the metal last year after four vandals broke into a shed owned by New England Gas Co. and smashed a jar of mercury. The vandals took another jar of the metal with them to the apartment complex, tracking it into apartments and spreading it around the parking lot. Narvaez' apartment was contaminated when her youngest daughter returned from her sister's contaminated apartment, bringing the toxic metal with her on her clothes.
Dana said he ordered a Texas company, 3TM International Inc., to retest the housing complex after some of his clients had health complaints.
"They had various complaints -- not a huge number, but enough for some concern," Dana said. "I looked at them and felt it best to find out if the property has been remediated properly."
Mercury can adversely affect the human nervous system, and can permanently damage the brain, kidneys, and developing fetuses, according to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
Dana delivered results last week to the attorney for New England Gas Co., which owned the mercury that contaminated the area. Copies were also sent to the state Department of Environmental Management, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Rhode Island attorney general and the state Department of Health. Dana said he met with his clients Monday evening to discuss the results.
The study's results are no cause for alarm, said a written statement provided to The Journal by Christopher J. Medici, director of communications for New England Gas Co.
"Based on the Company's preliminary review of the material submitted by legal representatives of some of the residents," the statement said, "it appears that the test results are far below the applicable environmental standards that would warrant any concern for the health and safety of these residents."
Independent test results of the soil around the contaminated apartments and dust within the apartments show that mercury levels range from .518 to 3.1608 parts per million, a level, which Dana said, could prove harmful to the residents and show that the property wasn't properly cleaned.
"That's a pretty significant number," Dana said. "It's hard to get that kind of number if you've remediated it."
The apartment complex was evacuated for two months while the property was cleared of any trace of the metal. The 147 tenants were housed in a Pawtucket hotel as trash bins outside their homes filled with contaminated furniture, toys and carpeting as officials worked to make the site habitable. Residents returned to their homes in December 2004, two months after the contamination was discovered, after the complex was declared cleared by the state Department of Health and the state Department of Environmental Management..
The inconvenience of the displacement seems to be for naught if the area is still contaminated, Dana said.
" ... Our goal is to ensure the health and safety of these people," Dana said, "even if that means taking everything out and cleaning it up again."
Dana In the meantime, Naveraez and the apartment residents can do nothing but wait to hear what will happen next and if they'll be displaced yet again. For Naveraez, the inconvenience of the hotel is a small price to pay for her health.
"I hope they clear it out," she said. "Do whatever it is they need to do to get rid of it and get rid of it right."
ARTICLE TOOLS: 
