Hannam Vilage Water Safe to Drink

Well now after initially testing positive for mercury the water at Hannam Village near Yongsan is apparently safe to drink again:

Andrew, his father and Brig. Gen. Al Aycock, who runs Installation Command Korea, all spent time drinking the tap water on Hannam Village on Wednesday in an effort to revive residents’ confidence in the water following a recent mercury scare.

“In my opinion, most of the residents at Hannam Village, their concern is for their children,” Stephens said. “I wouldn’t have my son drink this water if I wasn’t confident there was no mercury in it.”

On Friday, the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine at Camp Zama, Japan, alerted Yongsan that a monthly drinking water sample taken April 6 was positive for mercury: slightly more than allowed in Hannam’s water and nearly five times the acceptable level in samples from the Army Corps of Engineers Far East District Compound.

Yongsan officials scrambled to alert residents — warning them not to use the water for brushing their teeth, cooking or drinking. They placed several 1,000-gallon water tanks on Hannam and held a special town hall meeting on Sunday to answer concerns.

New samples were rushed through an approved South Korean lab and when the results returned Tuesday evening showed negative for mercury, officials breathed a sigh of relief.

Now the question residents have to ask themselves is if they trust the Korean lab or a Japanese lab to give accurate test results.