Post by trent on Aug 4, 2009 12:57:57 GMT -5
I was emailing with Dean Zimmerman, District 6 Wildlife Biologist for the Indiana DNR. In the string of emails, the fish advisory that governs some of our local streams came up. I asked him for more info about that. Some of you may know this background and others may not, but I thought it would be interesting to post for anyone that would like to know more. With his permission, I'm posting his comments:
"The “high” fish advisory on the Wea Creek and Elliot Ditch (Elliot empties into Wea Cr.) is due to PCB contamination from industry in Lafayette into the Elliot Ditch. PCB’s are found in an oily product used in electric transformers and industrial processes. Elliot Ditch was loaded with them at one point and in the mid-80’s Alcoa paid several million dollars to have the ditch dredged. The PCB laden muck was hauled to Alabama to a special landfill.
The other pollutant that shows up in Indiana fish is mercury. There is some natural mercury in the soil, but a good bit of it comes from the burning of coal in electric power plants. The mercury apparently becomes volatile during the burning process and is sent up the stack in water vapor and smoke, and gets spread over the landscape. I suspect then when soil erodes from the land (both ag and urban development) into the streams the mercury is carried with and deposited there. Fish pick it up from the invertebrates they eat and accumulate the mercury in their body.
Bottom feeders and large fish have the potential to accumulate these two pollutants. If you want to check the advisory online, check out: www.in.gov/isdh/files/2009_FCA_Booklet.pdf"
If you go to the link, you will see that streams like Wea Creek, Wildcat Creek, and Sugar Creek are among those that are in "Group 5" for never eating fish from those streams. I was aware of the ban, but just never had the background.
