6-07-2023 9:34pm

Tularosa Post Office Closed Due to Hazardous Liquid Spill

Chris Edwards Editor

The village of Tularosa posted on their official website that the local post office is closed until June 12th. The post reported that there was a hazardous spill within the post office and as such it is closed pending cleanup.

An article in Bestlifeonline.com states

“Best Life has reached out to the USPS to see if it will confirm the reasoning for this closure, and we will update this story with their response.

The agency did include information about what people should do for their postal needs during the Tularosa Post Office closure in its alert, however. "Customers' mail will be available and retail services offered at the Alamogordo Post Office," the USPS said. The two facilities appear to be just a little more than 13 miles apart from each other.”

Postal service closures due to hazards spills are fairly rare.

However a recent occurrence occurred Clare County Michigan. There is no known connection and mercury has NOT been reported as the issue in Tularosa.

The Emergency Management reported the Lake and Farwell post offices are now back open, 10 days after a package containing mercury spilled and forced them to shut down.

Emergency crews were busy Monday 5-15-23 after a mercury spill at a Clare County post office.

Emergency officials say it happened around 9 a.m. Monday at the Lake Station Post Office near US-10 in Garfield Township, Clare County. They say a worker noticed the spill after they loaded up the mail.

The Director for Clare County’s Emergency Services and Homeland Security, Jerry Becker, praised postal workers for noticing the hazard and making people aware immediately.

Seven people were isolated. Five of them postal workers, and two workers from a nearby convenience store. Before learning of the spill postal workers stopped into the store.

“They’ve closed and isolated the block around the post office and the convenience store adjacent where the employees walked over to,” Becker reports

Local, state and federal officials are all trying to figure out who went the package and where it was headed.

“Because the mail originated from the Detroit terminal they’re going to have to check all locations between [Garfield Township] and the Detroit terminal,” Becker explains.

Fire and hazmat teams are monitoring the people who were exposed and kept them onsite to prevent further contamination. No one is exhibiting symptoms of exposure so far. They are being monitored onsite, rather than risking exposure to others at a hospital.

Becker says the contaminated package may have also affected other people’s mail but says people shouldn’t be alarmed as state and federal officials have isolated the area and contained any mail that may have been contaminated in Garfield Township.

In a cursory preview of closures due to hazardous materials at postal offices there was a closure in 2019 in Pennsylvania and few others reported. Visit the USPS website for more information on closures or service interruptions…
https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/