Most residents
return home after
mercury scare

But some units are so contaminated
that their tenants will have
to be relocated

By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

MOST RESIDENTS of Puuwai Momi housing in Halawa were back in their homes today, assured by health officials that they are free of mercury.

But some families will likely be relocated to other public housing because of the severity of contamination in their apartments.

The state Department of Health made big strides in the cleanup yesterday. By late afternoon, 255 of the 260 units had been assessed by technicians with Pacific Environmental Corp.

Thirty-nine apartments were deemed not accessible until remnants of the liquid metal are removed.

With the arrival today of a federal Environmental Protection Agency crew to join in the cleaning, some of those were expected to be cleared for re-entry by today.

The American Red Cross was expected today to close the emergency shelter it has operated at Halawa District Park's gymnasium since Monday night. About 70 people stayed each night, and three meals were served daily to the housing residents.

Health officials said Thursday that returning residents would find some possessions missing. Items in which mercury was detected were placed in secured barrels for later cleanup. Several washing machines with mercury residue and pieces of carpeting were removed, and officials indicated it may be easier and less expensive to replace some things than to decontaminate them.

State Health Director Bruce Anderson said earlier that the price tag of the cleanup is not yet known, but it will be "hundreds of thousands of dollars."

As for the cleanup of the origin of the mercury, it is not yet established whether it will be a state or federal government problem. The mercury was taken by children from an abandoned pump house on a site near Pearl Harbor.

The U.S. Navy turned over the land containing the pump house and adjacent abandoned warehouse to the state in 1962, before the Defense Environmental Restoration Program went into effect requiring environmental cleanup before such an action.

The parcel is slated to be returned to the Navy in a swap for land at adjacent Richardson Field that the state wants for development of an Oahu Veterans Center.

Alex Kufel, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said it has not been determined whether the site qualifies for the mandated cleanup.