By Greg Grisolano
ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com
PITTSBURG, Kan. — Up to 12 pounds of mercury may have been released last week at a Pittsburg skate park, officials said Tuesday.
Pittsburg police Maj. Brent Narges said the skate park reopened Monday.
Narges said police sent documents to the Crawford County prosecutor alleging that three juveniles were responsible for the theft and release of the mercury, but that the suspects would not be taken into custody.
“We are not at this point going to make any physical arrest,” he said. “It will be up to the county attorney to determine any sort of charges.”
The three juveniles allegedly broke into a railroad warehouse and took some of the toxic metallic chemical, authorities said.
Mike Heideman, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said the mercury apparently came from seven arc resonators that are used to convert AC electrical current into DC current for welding. Each device contained about 2.54 pounds of mercury.
About 5 pounds of liquid mercury later were removed from the warehouse by authorities.
Heideman said the remaining 12 pounds were recovered and taken away in four 55-gallon drums containing contaminated dirt from the skate park, as well as in three 55-gallon drums containing dirt, dust and filter bags from the warehouse. An additional 13 boxes containing contaminated plates and sheeting, and clothing from people who were screened also will be disposed.
“At present, the materials are at a secure location,” Heideman said. “They will be taken to a hazardous-waste landfill.”
Authorities tested more than 40 homes, area schools and even a school bus, but they found no unsafe levels of mercury contamination, according to Janis Goedeke, director of the Crawford County Health Department.
More than 150 people were screened and 87 were tested for the effects of mercury poisoning, but all the tests were negative, Goedeke said Tuesday.
“No free mercury was found in any home, school or business, outside of the railroad facility or the park,” Heideman said.
Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency were called in Sept. 30 after local police and firefighters shut down the skate park at Schlanger Park after learning about the incident.
An official with the EPA’s regional office in Kansas City said the amount of mercury released in the Pittsburg spill is “unusual.”
“It’s not every day that you encounter a spill of that magnitude,” Chris Whitley said. “The vast majority of these incidents involve somebody breaking an old thermometer or one of the new (compact fluorescent) light bulbs. They are still serious, but they are a comparatively smaller amount that what we’re talking about in Pittsburg.”
Warehouse
Pittsburg police said they believe the three juveniles obtained the mercury from a barrel in an abandoned warehouse owned by Kansas City Southern Railway Co. The company issued a statement last week saying it had not kept mercury in the building, and that its inspections of the structure had not turned up any of the toxic metallic chemical.
A spokesman for the railroad could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
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