CSI: Twin Falls, Idaho

On September 15, 2009, elemental mercury was discovered splashed around a small area within a parking lot of an apartment complex in Twin Falls, Idaho. Local and state fire and hazmat teams responded immediately, as did the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the South Central Public Health District (SCPHD), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These agencies joined together in Unified Command and combined resources to assess, stabilize, and mitigate the incident while calmly dealing with the close attention from the local media. A public health concern quickly surfaced due to several factors: the source and quantity of the mercury were unknown, the timing of the incident was vague, school-aged children were involved. The concern was heightened due to the potential dangers of mercury exposure, the possible spread of contamination in homes and school, and the intense media coverage.  That concern was confirmed by data gathered by EPA and hazmat entry teams showing high levels of mercury vapors on the parking lot and inside one family’s apartment unit. Ultimately, the agencies were able to determine the mercury contamination was limited to the apartment and parking lot, and did not affect other homes, the school bus, or school. The apartment has since been remediated and family returned (after being evacuated from their residence).  Some of the “lessons learned” of the response were the importance of incident command leadership, each partner doing their jobs well and staying in their lanes, and open communication between the partners. While EPA provided equipment and technical assistance to the incident response and DEQ handled media inquiries, SCPHD worked smoothly with the school district and children to ascertain the exact number of children involved, to locate the source and amount of mercury spilled, and to provide valuable outreach to the affected families and larger community. This emergency response was a huge success as a result of close cooperation between local, state, and federal agencies. Awards were given to all partners involved by EPA in recognition of their exemplary performance and interagency cooperation during the mercury emergency response.