Mercury scare prompts additional evacuation

Nearby schools are also being checked for contamination.

12:58 PM EDT on Tuesday, October 26, 2004

BY JOHN CASTELLUCCI
Journal Staff Writer

Journal photo / Bob Thayer

Edward Seekeck, a resident of the Lawn Terrace apartment complex in Pawtucket, is one of 60 tenants who were told to leave the residence yesterday because of possible mercury contamination. Those displaced are staying at a nearby hotel.

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More residents evacuated from complex where mercury spilled

PAWTUCKET -- The apartment complex where vandals spilled stolen mercury over a period of three weeks was ordered completely evacuated yesterday, as officials, concerned about the possibility of mercury poisoning, found trace amounts of the toxic metal in buildings near where the vandals lived.

Sixty tenants of the apartment complex were given temporary lodging in a nearby motel, where Red Cross spokeswoman Robin Erickson said they joined the 56 people who were evacuated from the apartment complex Friday afternoon.

At the same time, schools in the neighborhood were checked for high mercury levels.

Michael Mulhare, administrator of the Department of Environmental Management's emergency response team, said the check, which was conducted after children were let out of school for the day, was being done on the theory that young people from the apartment complex might inadvertently have tracked small amounts of mercury into school buildings on the soles of their shoes.

"It's a possibility. It's not a very high possibility," Mulhare said.

The mercury scare started a week ago when an employee of New England Gas Co. discovered that a shed where mercury was being stored had been broken into by vandals who poured 10 pounds of the liquid metal onto the ground.

The shed was located on the so-called Tidewater property, a 23-acre site along the Seekonk River where a coal gasification plan had been located. Discovery of the break-in prompted the gas company to commission a hasty cleanup and to leaflet the surrounding neighborhood about the dangers of liquid mercury.

As a result of the leafleting, a maintenance worker at the Lawn Terrace apartment complex, a few blocks from the Tidewater property, at Pleasant and Division Streets, came to the realization that the silvery beads in the parking lot of the apartment complex were mercury.

The maintenance worker had been sweeping up the silvery beads with a broom.

The Fire Department was called in, along with the DEM and the Pawtucket Police Department's detective division. Two of the five buildings in the complex were evacuated and four males -- a 20-year-old, 18-year-old and two 17-year-olds -- were arrested on charges arising from the break-in and theft of mercury from the shed.

Harvey E. Goulet, Mayor James E. Doyle's director of administration, said the four vandals told the police they first broke into the shed three weeks ago, and had gone back repeatedly for mercury, with which they were playing.

Mulhare said that, in addition to the beads of mercury itself, gas from the slowly vaporizing toxic metal was found all over the apartment complex, with the highest amounts -- 10,000 to 50,000 nanograms per cubic meter of air -- in the two buildings that were evacuated Friday.

Mulhare said trace amounts of mercury -- 1,000 to 2,000 nanograms per cubic meter -- were found in the three buildings that were evacuated yesterday.

All five buildings in the complex are being decontaminated by Clean Harbors, the environmental company that New England Gas hired to clean the mercury spill at the Tidewater property.

At the same time, clothing that contained even trace amounts of mercury was being confiscated, officials said.

Jose Cruz, 56, who was evacuated along with his wife, Iris, 34, and their 10-year-old son Jose Edwin, from one of the first buildings Friday, said that, after they went back to their apartment to pick up their belongings, a new $30 pair of shoes that Mrs. Cruz bought at Wal-Mart over the weekend had to be discarded.

The shoes tested positive for mercury contamination, he said.

Although no cases of mercury poisoning have been reported, Cruz said his wife has been ailing over the past several weeks. He suspects that the mercury might be the reason.

"She throw up. She was dizzy, She had a headache. We went to Rhode Island Hospital a couple of times. They checked her out. They couldn't find nothing wrong with her. They thought she was going to have a heart attack."

The Cruz family was among the 66 people from the apartment complex who went to Our Lady of Fatima Hospital to have their blood tested for mercury poisoning.

Otis Brown, the hospital's vice president for development, said the blood samples have been sent to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for analysis. The test results should be available in 48 hours, he said.

The mercury scare caught city officials by surprise. New England Gas had never informed the Fire Department it was storing the substance on the premises, as required by law.

About 40 people showed up Sunday morning for an informational session at the Francis J. Varieur Elementary School on Pleasant Street, one of four schools in the neighborhood that were being tested for mercury contamination. The others were Shea High School on East Avenue and the International Charter Elementary and the International Charter High School on Pleasant Street.

"Obviously the people who live in the apartments are the most concerned," John J. Barry III, the city councilor from the area, said yesterday. "Other people who live in the neighborhood are concerned about the safety of the children in the schools.

"People have every right to be concerned," Barry said. "I think there has to be a major investigation of how a major utility stored toxic material in a local facility."