Mercury, Other Contamination Found in Water Tests at Pearl Harbor-Hickam as Navy Announces New Fuel

[rebewranger]

Mercury, Other Contamination Found in Water Tests at Pearl Harbor-Hickam as Navy Announces New Fuel Spill
 
4 Apr 2022
Military.com | By Patricia Kime

Mercury was found last month in a sink at an Oahu elementary school, not far from another elementary school where elevated levels of beryllium were detected during widespread testing of the Navy's water system in Honolulu.

The service announced Friday that a sample taken March 16 at Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary School contained mercury levels nearly twice the limit set by the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The sample was taken from an indoor sink located in an administrative building "not regularly used by students," according to the Navy, and was isolated to the sink.

 https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/04/04/mercury-other-contamination-found-water-tests-pearl-harbor-hickam-navy-announces-new-fuel-spill.html

[rebewranger]

I wonder if this could have anything to do with Dec. 7, 1941?  I have  been to the Arizona many times and know she still "weeps" oil.  I wonder if chemicals which were spilled that day have finally leached their way out of the soil and into  the water?

[DefiantMassRINO]

Not unusual at sites of old shipyards and old naval bases.

[catfish1957]

Not unusual at sites of old shipyards and old naval bases.

Yep, a lot of switches, gauges, and devices contained Hg back then.  If you think about it, it hasn't been that long that our HVAC thermostats had mercury in them. Though the solubility of elemental Hg is pretty low, it isn't zero.