CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) \u2014 A small mercury spill in Charleston has the attention of several agencies, environmental officials said.<\/p>\n
The spill was reported Friday afternoon near Dixie Street, according to a release from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.<\/p>\n
The DEP said it is coordinating the cleanup of the spill with the City of Charleston and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n
According to the release, around one-third of a cup of mercury spilled, and the affected area was treated with a binding agent. Environmental officials said the binding agent seals the mercury to the road to prevent vapor release. A 12 feet by 30 feet section of road material is being removed to be sent for proper disposal, the release said.<\/p>\n
While environmental officials said there is no public health or safety threat, they have asked the public to avoid the immediate area so the road material can be safely removed.<\/p>\n
Elemental mercury, according to EPA guidance, can pose concerns to health, especially when vapors are inhaled, according to the release. Improper handling or disturbance of the material can particularly pose health concerns, according to environmental officials.<\/p>\n
The DEP said trained personnel are conducting cleanup, using established safety protocols. The release said all responding agencies will remain on site until work is finished.<\/p>\n
Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n
JOIN THE CONVERSATION (2)<\/p>\n
Both the source and the cause of the spill remain under investigation, according to environmental officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) \u2014 A small mercury spill in Charleston has the attention of several agencies, environmental officials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-622667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}