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Baxterville Mercury Spill

All POLREP's for this site Baxterville Mercury Spill
Baxterville, MS - EPA Region IV
POLREP #5
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On-Scene Coordinator - Jeffery Crowley 8/9/2007
Emergency - Removal Assessment Pollution Report (POLREP) #5
Start Date: 8/1/2007
Pollution Report (POLREP) #5
Site Description
For Site Description and Background Information, please refer to previous POLREPs.

Current Activities
The following activities occurred during this reporting period:

August 6:  After trying a closure test during the night of Aug. 5, levels were still above RAL's (> 2 and > 9 ug/m3) in one bedroom.  Upon further investigation in the bedroom with high vapor levels, vapors were found on a shelf.  This was vacuumed and scrubbed.  For the remainder of the day, personal items were screened and ERRS crews worked to get remaining glue off the cement slab in the home in preparation for scrubbing.  ERRS also removed the paneling and insulation from the back bedrooms.

August 7:  Levels still were reading high in the back bedrooms so START conducted a meticulous screening on the rooms and found a hot spot in a corner of one room at approximately 44 ug/m3.  This spot was heated for the remainder of the day.  ERRS continued the scraping of the floor.

August 8:  ERRS finished scraping the floor and then began washing it with merc-x solution.  Once the washing was complete, ERRS began putting primer on the floors and exposed wall studs in back bedrooms.  

August 9:  ERRS finished priming and then put down an epoxy paint on the cement floor and wall studs.  ERRS crews completed some housekeeping and then were released for the remainder of the day while the epoxy dries.

3 ERRS were demobilized from the site.

Current On-Site Resources:
1 EPA OSC
1 START
6 ERRS


Planned Removal Actions
The following activities will take place during the next reporting period:

After the epoxy dries, a closure test will be performed on the home.  If it doesn't pass, then viscoene will be placed over the door of the bedroom  with the hotspot and the closure test will be re-performed.

ERRS crews will also begin to find the septic line for future flushing operations.


Next Steps
The lines leading from the house to the septic tank will be flushed numerous times with merc-x solution to try and removed the mercury vapor source coming from the pipes.

Key Issues
Until these next steps are complete, the residents of the home will continue to be relocated.