DEP: Few Fish Eaters Mean Little Mercury Risk

Residents say they'd eat more if knew it was safe


Morgantown Dominion Post
20 May 2009

Associated Press
CHARLESTON — West Virginia allows more mercury in fish than the federal government recommends, but environmental regulators say that's OK..
Since West Virginians eat less fish than the national average, they're at less risk of developing health problems caused by mercury, says the Department of Environmental Protection. In large doses, mercury can damage the brain and other vital organs.

The more fish people consume, the stricter mercury limits must be, Mike Arcuri, with DEP's water quality standards program, said Monday at a public meeting. But if people eat less, he said, concentrations of mercury in fish tissue can be a little higher.

The federal Clean Water Act recommends mercury not exceed 0.3 micrograms per gram of fish tissue. West Virginia allows 0.5 micrograms per gram.

Some residents say they might eat more fish if they were confident it was safe.

"We tell everyone in our area, and most people in our area would not eat a fish caught out of the Coal River. Or probably any other river, for that fact," said Janice Nease of Coal River Mountain Watch, a group devoted to fighting mountaintop removal mining in southern West Virginia.

Fellow activist Lorelei Scarbro said power plant air emissions are not the only source of mercury pollution in waterways — she also blames mining.

Studies have found mercury and other heavy metals in coal slurry, the wastewater produced when coal is washed. Across the coalfields, people believe that slurry has contaminated surface waters and groundwater, through both the leaching of impoundments and the deliberate injection into worked-out, abandoned mines.

"Coal is supposed to stay in the earth. Once you disturb it, there's all kinds of ugly things that come out of it and we end up consuming," Scarbro said.

Consumption advisories issued by the DEP and Department of Health and Human Resources already recommend that people limit the amount of certain fish they eat. Black bass over 12 inches long, for example, can safely he eaten twice a month, along with walleye and saugeye.

But location makes a difference: Walleye caught in Summersville Lake should only be eaten six times a year because of mercury, while catfish from the same lake should be eaten only once a month. And black bass from Sutton Lake should be eaten only once a month.