SALT LAKE CITY, March 22 (UPI) -- Utah officials say there is no public health hazard from a mercury spill at Hill Air Force Base that was covered up for five years before it was cleaned up.
Scott Anderson, director of the Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste, said the agency, working with Air Force base personnel, found traces of mercury and have issued a violation notice to the base, but he said investigators were "not concerned about a health risk from the cleanup," The Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday.
Anderson's agency began looking into the matter after receiving a tip from a whistle-blower, the newspaper said.
Air Force base officials were looking for an explanation of why the spill went unreported for so long, the Tribune reported.
Citing investigation reports from state and base authorities, the newspaper said there appeared to have been a deliberate effort to cover up the leak of mercury during a 2006-07 operation to retrofit a boiler. The spill was finally cleaned up this year.
