Cleanup begins at Reno company

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2000 | 12:20 p.m.

So much of the elements was spilled outside Aetron Corp.'s back door that it was oozing out of the asphalt after an initial cleaning, said Jim Lukasko, an engineer with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.

"It was vacuumed up the first time but later we saw mercury beads," Lukasko said. "It must have been absorbed in the asphalt."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a criminal investigation into the spill and the state is in charge of making sure it gets cleaned up, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported on Tuesday.

State officials were working with Aetron's environmental contractor on Monday to put the finishing touches on a plan for tracking the mercury and cleaning it up.

An initial investigation last month by the Washoe District Health Department showed the mercury had flowed from Aetron's building on through a storm drain into Dry Creek, a tributary to Boynton Slough.

Boynton Slough flows into Steamboat Creek, which terminates in the Truckee River east of Sparks. How far the mercury traveled and whether it entered the aquatic food chain is not yet known.

On Friday, Lukasko and Kim Tisdale, a fisheries biologist with the Nevada Division of Wildlife, electroshocked the Boynton Slough and collected seven small minnows for testing. The results should be available in a week or so.

The source of the mercury is under dispute. State and county officials learned of the contamination via anonymous telephone tips.

Aetron is a computer repair business and does not use mercury.

State officials have said the company's general manager, Russ Calkins, maintained a small piece of equipment inside the business which he used to heat up mercury and extract gold from it.

The mercury came from the closed Paradise Peak Mine near Gabbs, where Calkins' brother, Robert, worked as a security guard.

Calkins told authorities he took the mercury he processed back to the mine and denied pouring any out his back door or into the storm drain. He said he suspects someone planted it.

In its finding of violation and order issued Feb. 4 to Aetron Corp., the state alleges the mercury flowed from a pipe inside Aetron's warehouse and out onto the loading dock area where it flowed into a storm drain catch basin.