Alleged Mercury Spill

~Photos by William Tauro By William Tauro Following up on the allegations of a Mercury spill that occurred on June 17th at the Cambridge Health Alliance located in the rear of the Twin City Shopping Plaza in Somerville. According to officials in Somerville and Cambridge, the spill was never reported to the Somerville nor the Cambridge Fire Departments and that no fire company units were ever dispatched on that day to that location. When we showed up on the scene, a private hazardous waste clean up crew was on site containing the spill loading fifty five gallon drums onto a hazardous waste box truck and they refused to comment. The rear entrance of the Medical Center was sealed off with yellow emergency protective tape to keep anyone from using that exit. The front of the clinic was open for business as usual with patients going in and out without any knowledge of what was happening behind closed doors just feet away. According to Somerville city officials, the front entrance of the clinic is located on Rufo Road in Cambridge and the rear entrance is located in Somerville.

Comments

[Chris]

You imply that something illegal or wrong was in progress here. There is no requirement to report a chemical spill to fire and hazmat teams if it is contained, under control, and qualified personnel are available to clean it up. There is also no requirement to shut down an entire facility to clean up a small chemical spill, so continuing with business was perfectly appropriate as long as the spill area was secured from the public. And the hazmat workers are certainly under no obligation to "comment" on the cleanup. Mercury at health care facilities is typically in small quantities, either in thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, etc. The 55 gallon drums you saw were probably filled with contaminated items, not bulk mercury. I don't know whether Cambridge Health Alliance is aware of your defamatory post, but it would certainly interest them.

[Bill Tauro]

Dear Chris:
In any community even the smallest spill of any sort of hazardous material should and is required to be reported by to the proper authorities!
Thank you for your concern in this matter.

Best regards,

Bill Tauro

Ps: It happened because I was there!
Have a nice day!

billy@thesomervillenews.com