The United States Geological Survey (USGS) issued a report today finding widespread mercury contamination in U.S. streams. The USGS found methylmercury in every fish that it sampled – an extraordinary indictment of the health of our nation’s waters. The USGS reported that the fish at 27% of the sites contain mercury at levels exceeding the criterion for the protection of humans who consume an average amount of fish, as established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But EPA’s criterion grossly understates the risk to those people whose fish consumption practices differ from those of the “average American,” particularly members of the various fishing tribes, Asian-Americans, and those hailing from the Pacific or Caribbean Islands. Whereas EPA’s criterion is based on the assumption that people eat 17.5 grams per day of fish – about one fish meal every two weeks, on average – people in these groups consume fish at several times this rate. Many Native peoples in the Pacific Northwest, for example, currently eat hundreds of grams per day. The USGS findings are thus all the more troubling when one considers these higher-consuming populations – the USGS numbers mean that few of the fish sampled are fit for consumption by these people.
The concern raised by widespread mercury contamination in fish is even more pressing in these tough economic times. This summer, more and more people throughout the United States looked to fish for food (Update: for more on this, see Reuters, La Crosse Tribune, Detroit Free Press, and New York Daily News). This makes perfect sense: if they aren’t contaminated, fish are good for you. Nutritionists continue to extol the health benefits of eating fish. Fish are an excellent source of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and a host of other nutrients essential to human health. And, if one can drop a line or dip a net into nearby waters, fish can be a relatively inexpensive way to put dinner on the table for one’s family.
But those fishing for food are placed in a bind. The USGS findings add weight to other studies that have led federal, state, and tribal governments to issue fish consumption advisories warning people to reduce or eliminate fish entirely from their diet due to mercury contamination. In fact, 48 states have issued advisories placing some or all of their lakes, rivers, or coastal waters under advisory for mercury (see the EPA's site on this).
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California has expanded its fish consumption advisory, warning people to curtail or eliminate entirely their consumption of nineteen species of fish caught off the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County. Among the new advisory’s recommendations is that humans should avoid eating white croaker, topsmelt, or barred sand bass caught in an area extending more than 30 miles from the Santa Monica pier south to the Seal Beach pier, and that, additionally, women and children should avoid barracuda or black croaker from this area. The advisory also includes less strict recommendations for a broader area of coastline, stretching more than 100 miles in total, including the entire coastlines of Los Angeles and Orange counties, and part of Ventura County. The primary contaminants of concern behind these advisories are DDT and PCBs (both human carcinogens) but mercury and a host of other substances also threaten the health of the Santa Monica and San Pedro bays – and the health of the humans that depend on them.
One lesson to be taken from our impact on the environment in the Los Angeles area comes from our response to what has been billed as “the world’s largest DDT dump” – a 17-square-mile-area just off the coast that now comprises the Palos Verdes Superfund Site. From 1947 to 1971, the Montrose Chemical Corp. discharged some 1,800 tons of DDT into the sewer system, which flowed into the ocean. DDT was determined to be so toxic that it was banned in the United States in 1972. Four decades later, we are poised to address this contamination … sort of.
Full textHere's some slippery regulatory logic: West Virginia's Department of Environmental Protection says it is justified in setting less stringent levels for mercury in the state's waters than recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Why? Because, according to the WVDEP, a recent study shows that people in West Virginia eat less fish than the "average American" assumed by EPA. And if people consume less fish, they will be exposed to lower quantities of the toxic pollutants in those fish -- including methylmercury. But why might people in West Virginia eat less fish? One reason is likely the statewide fish consumption advisory warning people to limit their consumption of fish caught in all West Virginia waters, due to mercury contamination. But isn't the amount of mercury contamination permitted in the state's waters limited by the WVDEP? Well, yes. But any limitations on sources' releases of mercury are keyed to the WVDEP's water quality standard for mercury -- the one that is relatively lenient -- so sources in this case can release relatively more mercury. Which leads West Virginia to issue more restrictive fish consumption advisories. Which leads people to eat less fish. Which registers as a lower fish consumption rate in studies. Which supports WVDEP in promulgating even more lenient water quality standards for mercury. Which allows sources to release more mercury. Which leads West Virginia to issue more restrictive fish consumption advisories ...
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