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Somerville man gets costly lesson in the history of Honeywell heating systems

Jeff Kaufman reports on what is turning into a $50,000 decontamination project thanks to some clueless workers who removed an ancient Honeywell heating system and let the mercury that it used to help pressurize the water just spill all over the place, well before he bought the place.

On July 1st I discovered a puddle of liquid mercury in our house. It was the evening before the holiday weekend and I was preparing to do some more demolition for the bathroom I've been working on. I was putting down plastic to make cleanup easier, and when I got to the corner there was a dusty little puddle. That seemed peculiar, so I poked it. It wiggled. I knew exactly what liquid moves like that. Completely dumbfounded, I went downstairs to wash my hands.

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Comments

Do you know how often Hazmat stuff like this is uncovered by renovation contractors and outright ignored?

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This is a great article about the Honeywell Heat Generator.

And the patent for it.
Patent

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Ugh, as the owner of a 91-year old house, color me terrified. Not by the hazmat mercury, but by the required out-of-pocket remediation cost!

I shudder to wonder about renovations done by previous owners over the century either with the best of intentions and not the proper knowledge, OR WORSE, people knowingly cutting corners on life and safety.

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This may be covered by homeowner's insurance.

Still, yes, terrifying!

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To see why Kaufman is picking up the entire tab by himself, despite having insurance.

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says in the article his homeowner's insurance refused to cover it, on the grounds that (1) the policy excludes toxic spills and (2) the spill predated his ownership of the house.

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Most homeowner policies in Massachusetts has a hazardous materials exclusion. Massachusetts law requires the property owner to clean spills on their property whether or not they were the cause of the release.

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91 years old? Amateur. Ours is 155. :)

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Mercury, like asbestos, has some great uses, and works great at the things it has been used for. But when it ends up escaping from where it was supposed to be, it's nothing but trouble.

I am fascinated by this device, there is something amazing about such a simple solution to the problem it addressed.

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The places where the sorts of things using asbestos and mercury were manufactured have required billions of dollars in cleanup.

Meanwhile, Honeywell still manufacturers mercury instruments for the natural gas industry.

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were another big one, since they used thorium. There's a huge superfund site in Camden, NJ, the former Welsbach Corp., which manufactured gas mantles for the gas lighting industry. Radioactive as well as toxic. Fun!

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