Company Accused of Illegal Mercury Storage

Company Accused of Illegal Mercury Storage

October 2007

 A federal grand jury in 
Providence has charged the Southern Union Company, the Texas-based former 
owner of the New England Gas Company, with illegally storing mercury at a 
Pawtucket, Rhode Island site and with failing to report mercury spillage. 
If convicted and fined the maximum penalty, the company could pay as much 
as $67 million. 
The three count indictment returned Tuesday in U.S. District Court in 
Providence centers on Southern Union's 2001 program to remove from 
customers’ homes gas regulators that contained mercury. 
Southern Union contracted with an environmental services company to safely 
remove the mercury from the regulators, which had been used in homes built 
prior to the 1960s to control the flow of gas. 
Southern Union employees brought the regulators to a facility at the end 
of Tidewater Street in Pawtucket on the edge of the Seekonk River. There 
the contractor removed the mercury from the regulators and shipped it to a 
facility for distillation. 
The indictment alleges that the removal contract expired at the end of 
2001 but that New England Gas technicians continued to remove the 
regulators containing mercury. The company allegedly stored the regulators 
in a vacant building at the Tidewater facility, some of them in plastic 
kiddie pools. 
The indictment alleges that the company also stored liquid mercury in 
various containers in the building. That mercury, the indictment alleges, 
came from a variety of sources, including from the locker of a deceased 
company employee. 
In 2002, 2003, and again in 2004, the indictment alleges, a local company 
official drafted requests for proposals for removal of the mercury that 
was collecting at the Tidewater facility. But the company allegedly never 
finalized the requests for proposals or put them out to bid. 
By July 2004, according to the indictment, some 165 mercury-containing 
regulators were stored at the Tidewater facility, as were various other 
containers, such as glass jars and a plastic jug, containing a total of 
more than a gallon of mercury. 
The indictment alleges that the Tidewater facility was in various states 
of disrepair and, over the years, showed evidence of break-ins by vandals 
and homeless people. At three company safety committee meetings in 2004, 
maintenance employees raised concerns about the facility’s safety, but 
Southern Union took no action, according to the indictment. 
In September 2004, according to the indictment, three youths broke into 
the mercury storage building and took several containers of liquid 
mercury. They broke some of the containers, spilling mercury around the 
facility’s grounds. They took some of the mercury to a nearby apartment 
complex, where they spread it around the grounds. For about three weeks, 
according to the indictment, puddles of mercury remained on the ground at 
the Tidewater facility. 
The indictment alleges that in October 2004, shortly after a company 
employee discovered the mercury spill, Southern Union arranged for an 
environmental services company to remove the mercury from Tidewater. But 
the company allegedly failed to notify the Pawtucket Fire Department and 
the state fire marshal about the spill, as required by federal law. 
The indictment also charges Southern Union with two counts of storing 
hazardous waste without a permit and one count of failing to notify the 
appropriate local emergency officials of a hazardous waste spill. 
The fine for storing the mercury, if calculated at the maximum penalty of 
$50,000 per day, could amount to $66,850,000. The maximum fine for failing 
to report a hazardous waste spill is $500,000. 
The nervous system is very sensitive to all forms of mercury, according to 
the federal Agency for Toxic Substances. Methylmercury and metallic 
mercury vapors are more harmful than other forms, because more mercury in 
these forms reaches the brain. Exposure to high levels of metallic, 
inorganic, or organic mercury can permanently damage the brain, kidneys, 
and developing fetus. 

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