Don't Eat The Fish?
Today, mercury is the leading cause of NC fish consumption advisories. In March four Southeastern states issued joint fish consumption advisories for coastal King Mackerel due to possible mercury contamination. Large King Mackerel caught off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were found to have elevated mercury levels in their systems. According to the Advisory, King Mackerel less than 33 inches or about 10 pounds are reportedly safe to eat. Consumption of 33-inch to 39-inch fish should be limited and fish over 39 inches should not be eaten at all.
Mercury is a poison. It can affect the brain and nervous system. It is especially dangerous to young children and unborn children. Mercury poisoning can cause numbness of lips, fingers or toes, fatigue and blurred vision. In a famous incident in 1950, people at Minamata Bay in Japan were poisoned by eating fish that contained high levels of mercury. Many of them suffered permanent brain damage, others died.
Mercury is an odorless, silver-white metal that is found naturally in soils, sediments and water. Medical waste incinerators, coal burning industries, and chlor-alkali plants release mercury into the air. Once the mercury is released into the air it may be deposited in water. When the mercury gets into the water, bacteria converts it into a toxin called methyl mercury. This builds up in fish tissue and other aquatic life. Fish accumulate mercury from their prey, so the bigger the fish the higher levels of mercury it contains. Unfortunately, you can'’t cook mercury out. It binds tightly to the protein in the fish’s muscles.
The NC Division of Marine Fisheries sampled King Mackerel from North Carolina waters throughout 1998-1999. Results of this sampling showed that King Mackerel (above 39 inches) consistently had high levels of mercury. Sampling from Florida, Georgia and South Carolina produced the same results. The testing found that the mercury level was nowhere near the levels of the poisoned fish in Japan. The danger hereis not life threatening, but frequent intakes for those most sensitive could result in health risks.
TMDL
Regulations Delayed?
A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet state water quality standards. In August, 1999 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed regulatory revisions to the TMDL program. The proposed regulations call for each TMDL to have an implementation plan with:
- List of actions to reduce pollutants;
- Time line describing when these actions will occur;
- Reasonable assurance that pollutants from
point and nonpoint sources will be reduced;
- Legal authorities to be used;
- Estimate of the time it will take to attain
water quality standards;
- Monitoring or modeling plan to determine if
on-the-ground actions are working and
pollutants are being reduced;
- Milestones for measuring progress; and
- Plans for revising the TMDL, if progress is
not being made.
Interest groups, including representatives of the forestry and agriculture industries, state and local officials, and others have criticized the EPA proposal in the course of six congressional hearings as unworkable, costly and beyond EPA's regulatory authority. A bill introduced April 13 in the Senate will delay the release of a final rule on the TMDL program.
This bill will delay the program for approximately 18 months. The legislation (S.2417) would direct the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study on the quality of science the EPA used in developing its' proposal. This bill will also authorize increases in grant funding for water pollution control programs. It will provide $250 million for the Clean Water Act. Another $500 million would pay for state grants to fund nonpoint source water pollution control programs. A group of senators are also pursuing legislation that would require EPA to withdraw the proposal.
Established by section 303 (d) of the Clean Water Act, the primary mission of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program is to protect public health and ensure healthy watersheds. The program identifies polluted waters, determines how much pollutants must be reduced to meet water quality standards, and ensures that on the ground actions occur to reduce pollutants. |
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