A quantity of spilled mercury at three Libby residences this week brought a strong response from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Eric Sandusky, the Federal On-Scene Coordinator for the EPA’s Response Section Superfund and Emergency Management Division, spoke to The Western News Tuesday afternoon about the exposure and what is being done.

“Saturday night we got a call about a possible exposure and we arrived Sunday to begin working to screen the properties,” Sandusky said.

Officials used a mercury vapor analyzer to determine the levels in the homes before formulating a plan to clean up the substance.

There will be a public meeting with the EPA and Lincoln County Health Department at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3, at the Ponderosa Room, Libby City Hall, 952 E. Spruce St. 

The online version is available in a Microsoft Teams (Meeting ID: 257 907 959 683 07, Passcode: nJ6NJ3zk) or by phone: 1-406-247-0520, phone conference ID: 573 816 967#.

The incident occurred sometime in late October 2025 when the resident’s child’s friend brought a fruit cup filled with mercury to the home, according to EPA officials. The mercury was taken from the friend’s grandparent’s collection. The mercury was spilled onto a rug in the child’s room and played with before the friend returned home. At that point, the resident child rolled the mercury beads into the rug and placed the rug under the bed. 

Then, the child developed symptoms that were initially diagnosed as Scarlet Fever by medical professionals. Family pets exhibited similar symptoms. On Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, a house cleaner discovered and collected mercury beads under furniture in the child’s room, prompting the parent to alert a physician. The family was then relocated to a local hotel.

According to EPA Community Involvement Coordinator Beth Archer, a washing machine at a third location had mercury contamination.

"The bulk of the contamination was at the first two locations on Spencer Road," Archer said. "The spill occurred in late October and the EPA was notified Saturday, Nov. 22. After the initial discovery of the contamination at the first two properties, seven property owners asked to be screened and that's when the third contamination was discovered."

A school bus and the elementary school are also going to be screened.

Archer said a child has suffered serious health effects and is being treated for it. She also said officials are not seeing widespread contamination.

The EPA will follow up with mercury screening of all locations related to this incident using the Lumex MVA. The agency will contact local public health officials to inform them of the situation and seek additional support, if necessary. 

The EPA screened homes the children may have visited and did not see elevated concentrations of mercury throughout those homes. One home had elevated concentrations in a washing machine. At this time it appears the spread of mercury throughout the community is limited. 

Archer said the contaminated materials that are found will be taken with officials when cleanup work is finished. She also said mercury pickups are also available at any Lincoln County landfill, including the following:

- Libby Landfill, Monday - Saturday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

- Troy Landfill, Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

- Eureka Landfill,  Monday - Fri 8 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

A local meeting is being planned next Tuesday or Wednesday at Libby City Hall's Ponderosa Room. More information will be released when the date and time is known. A mercury take back event is also planned, but a date hasn't been set.

The EPA also has a response website at https://response.epa.gov/SpencerRoadMercury. It provides information on ongoing response actions, emergency procedures and technical resources for responders.

Two of the three residences were evacuated.

“It wasn’t mandatory, but both families exited their homes,” Sandusky said. “We’re not sure how long the cleanup will take. We have one team working on one residence and another on the way after we found out about the second home.”

Sandusky said the mercury was elemental, or metallic, and it was typically used for hobby mining. When asked if such a substance could be used in the manufacture of dangerous drugs, Sandusky said he hadn’t heard that it could be used for such an endeavor.

The Libby Creek Recreational Gold Panning Area is still a popular area for those wishing to try their hand at discovering a bit of gold dust or a tiny nugget. Located 23 miles south of Libby, the land surrounding the Libby Creek area has been of interest to prospectors since the early 1860s, when it was home to up to 600 miners working at a camp known as Libbysville.

By 1876, only one miner was reported to be working the creek, but a second gold rush in 1885 brought another wave of miners to a new camp known as Lake City or Oldtown. A store in the mining camp was supplied by a packstring that brought supplies via a trail from Thompson Falls. Mining on the creek hit its peak from 1889 to 1909. The current gold panning area was acquired through a land exchange in 1987 and opened to the public the following year.

At the contaminated residence, cleanup crews were already on site, including from Salt Lake City, Denver, Arizona and Missouri.

“We worked with the families to see what was contaminated and what was not,” Sandusky said.

He also said the agency wants to do a local mercury take back event at some point in an effort to prevent another exposure and possible illnesses.

According to a EPA fact sheet about elemental mercury, it was historically referred to as quicksilver. When dropped, elemental mercury breaks into smaller droplets which can go through small cracks or become strongly attached to certain materials. 

At room temperature, exposed elemental mercury can evaporate to become an invisible, odorless toxic vapor. If heated, it is a colorless, odorless gas.

According to the EPA, metallic mercury mainly causes health effects when inhaled as a vapor where it can be absorbed through the lungs. Symptoms of prolonged and/or acute exposures include:

• Tremors;
• Emotional changes (such as mood swings, irritability, nervousness, excessive shyness);
• Insomnia;
• Neuromuscular changes (such as weakness, muscle atrophy, twitching);
• Headaches;
• Disturbances in sensations;
• Changes in nerve responses; and/or;
• Poor performance on tests of mental function.
• Higher exposures may also cause kidney effects, respiratory failure and death.