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Department of Ecology News Release - April 15, 2007
07-093
OLYMPIA –Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) is assisting Yakima Fire Department and Yakima County Health District in responding to the discovery of an undetermined amount of mercury in front of a residence on 6th Street in Yakima. Fire department and Ecology crews have cordoned off the area to protect the public. Ecology is arranging to quickly bring in contracted clean-up services.
The mercury was discovered after a 16-year-old boy in the house was diagnosed with mercury poisoning and taken to Children’s Hospital in Seattle. The mercury was found on the sidewalk and in the grassy median between the sidewalk and the street. It is in an area about three inches wide and a foot long and beads are visible, according to Jim Pearson, with Ecology’s Central Regional Office Spills Response Team.
It’s unclear how the mercury got on the ground.
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Contacts: Kathy Davis, public information officer, 360-407-6149
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
