Mullan High Mercury Response Called Overkill Returning Students Can Drink Safely From Water Fountains

A report of mercury contamination at Mullan High School this month brought an overwhelming reaction.

The problem, said Mullan’s school superintendent, is that there wasn’t a problem.

“It was overkill,” Robin Stanley said Monday of the response.

The confusion began at 5:30 a.m. Dec. 18 when janitors decided to unplug a drinking fountain drain.

A towel was laid on the floor to catch debris, and the drain plug was removed. Out of the trap dropped a shiny quarter-sized lump of mercury. Six BBs of the shiny liquid bounced off the towel and were retrieved, Stanley said.

“All of the mercury in the science lab was accounted for,” he said. “We think some student had some mercury, possibly from a large old thermometer.”

Stanley remembers playing with mercury when he studied chemistry.

But now, it’s widely known that mercury is toxic. It can damage the nervous system and even cause death. So Stanley followed procedures and reported the incident.

“I contacted the state Department of Education, and they contacted the state Department of Public Facilities,” he recalled.

“Within half an hour, OSHA had been informed, the EPA and the DEQ,” he said of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Division of Environmental Quality.

He consulted with the state agency. By Saturday, he’d heard from county disaster services and the sheriff’s office asking why they hadn’t been contacted.

“A sheriff’s deputy heard it was a fistful of mercury,” Stanley said.

By Christmas, a rumor was circulating that the school’s water supply was contaminated.

But students coming back from their holiday break can drink safely from the water fountains.

“We did buy a mercury cleanup kit, and Silver Valley Analytical Lab did the cleanup,” Stanley said. “There’s absolutely no residue left.”

, DataTimes