Homeowner discovers bottle of mercury on his property in Weber County

ROY — A homeowner in Roy found a bottle of mercury on his property and fortunately did the right thing by reporting it, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.

The bottle was found near 2125 West and 5025 South.

Craig Meyers, the federal on-scene coordinator for the EPA said the homeowner did the right thing by calling his local fire department to help him dispose of it because of how dangerous mercury is. In this case, the bottle was unopened — a factor that makes all the difference.

“Mercury is dangerous, it’s especially toxic for small children or women of childbearing age because it’s a neurotoxin and it interferes with the development in the nervous system,” he said. “Absolutely it should be handled appropriately.”

According to Meyers, mercury “vaporizes readily into the air surrounding it, even though it’s a metal,” which makes even being around the substance dangerous.

Meyers said the Utah State Fire Marshal didn’t have a safe way to dispose of the bottle because its instrumentation was down. Weber Fire District responded to the scene, but the fire marshal’s office called in the EPA to help.

There are about a dozen facilities across the U.S., Myers said, that handle the disposal of mercury. In some cases, it’s recycled. The EPA is working with one of these facilities to dispose of the bottle safely.

“This was handled the way it should be and it all worked out well,” he said.