11:47 AM MST on Monday, February 9, 2004

Adam Atchison
Idaho's NewsChannel 7

Bill Krumm-KTVB A mercury spill at a Riggins home left family members sick and prompted an EPA cleanup.

RIGGINS -- Members of the Wicker family have had their lives turned upside down. All three are sick and items in their home contaminated after mercury from a broken barometer vaporized throughout the house.

The Environmental Protection Agency is now using Superfund money to clean up the site, and the Wickers can't wait to move back in after the ordeal.

"We miss it desperately," said Sandy Wicker. "I just think this is so sad."

For weeks, the Wicker's two bedroom home has been too dangerous to live in. But Friday, the high levels of mercury that kept them out were down, and the family returned for the first time in three weeks. The walls are now bare and part of the floor has been replaced.

The Wickers discovered something was wrong in their now empty home when daughter Stephanie started getting very sick.

"We got early notice of it while we were at the hospital that things were happening at the house. They had to notify the health department because I had mercury poisoning and it could have come from the house," said Sandy Wicker.

The mercury poisoning was traced to a broken 18th-century barometer that John and Sandy Wicker stored in the garage. The mercury had vaporized in warm temperatures.

"The concentrations exceeded the ability of our instruments to measure - it was that highly concentrated,” said EPA On-Scene Coordinator Earl Silverman.

Bill Krumm-KTVB An EPA worker wears protective clothing to avoid deadly mercury poisoning.

The EPA spent three weeks cleaning out the house piece by piece. Plastic shelters have been set up outside to decontaminate every item in the house. All of the contaminated items from the Wicker home are inside a sealed container in the front yard.

"The vapors will move into any type of porous surface: cloth covered items, wood, linoleum, bedding," said Silverman.

Although the Wickers will return to a gutted home this weekend, they say they're more concerned about getting better. All three feel sick and Stephanie suffers from muscle spasms.

The family's focus will be healing.

"She's our number one priority,” said Wicker. “What we've lost, well, tomorrow's another day."