Fishing for Trouble
By Lily Auliff

Early in 2001, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised women who are pregnant or may become pregnant, nursing women, and young children to limit consumption of non-commercial fish to two servings per week due to mercury contamination. EPA recommended people contact their state and local health departments for local information. What is the Texas Department of Health (TDH) doing to protect its people? Not enough, says Karen Hadden, Clean Air Coordinator at the SEED Coalition.

Photo courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife.

There is only one local mercury advisory, which concerns consumption of large king mackerel from the Gulf of Mexico. However, there would be many more if TDH would set their safety thresholds at a reasonable level and establish a routine monitoring system, says Hadden.

Exposure to high levels of mercury can cause tremors, inability to walk, convulsions, and even death, according to the EPA. At lower levels, exposure damages the senses and brain. The developing fetus is most sensitive to mercury; children exposed to the toxic metal in the womb have exhibited various symptoms, including delayed walking and talking and reduced neurological test scores.

People are primarily exposed to mercury by eating fish and seafood. Much of the mercury released into the atmosphere by power plants and other industry eventually ends up in water bodies. Microorganisms filter it out of the water, and concentrations eventually build up in larger animals. Due to bioaccumulation, large fish can exhibit mercury levels up to 100,000 times higher than surrounding water.

On the Level
The Seafood Safety Division of TDH issues consumption advisories when toxin levels in fish and seafood are too high. For example, TDH warns adults not to eat more than eight ounces of any species of fish or crabs per month from the Ship Channel northwest of the Lynchburg Ferry Crossing or from the San Jacinto River below the Highway 90 bridge, due to elevated levels of chlorinated pesticides, PCBs, and dioxins.

TDH issues health warnings when they find fish or seafood with mercury levels of 0.7 parts per million (ppm) or higher. EPA, however, recommends an advisory threshold level of 0.2 ppm.

Fish containing at least 0.2 ppm of mercury – EPA’s suggested advisory threshold – were found in nine out of the 12 local water bodies and sections of water bodies tested by TDH between 1998 and 1999: the Gulf, the Houston Ship Channel; Clear Lake; lower, upper, and west Galveston Bay; the Trinity River; Trinity Bay; and Lake Houston.

As a state, Texas has the 35th highest advisory threshold. Eleven states have set thresholds at or below 0.2 ppm; North Dakota and New York, which both have routine monitoring programs, set their thresholds at 0.0 ppm.

Waiting for a Sign
TDH also does a poor job of letting the public know about fishing advisories, notes Hadden.

The Seafood Safety Division would like to place signs at all water bodies where advisories have been issued, says Susan Bush, Survey Branch Chief of the Seafood Safety Program at TDH, but there is not enough funding. There have also been problems with locals not wanting the signs and vandalism. “It’s bad for tourism. People who see the signs think a lake is not safe for swimming or boating if an advisory is posted,” she explains.

Advisories are listed on TDH’s website and in a booklet that is available upon request. Texas Parks and Wildlife distributes a pamphlet that contains a listing of all places where fishing is banned due to contamination – but not consumption advisories – to all who receive fishing licenses.

Not So Routine Procedures
Texas has no routine fish monitoring program, admits Bush. There are many bodies of water that have never been tested for mercury contamination or other pollutants. Why? Funding, of course. The Seafood Safety Program operates mainly on grant money, so testing is only done at limited locations for specific projects. TDH has requested funding for a more comprehensive program from the Texas legislature, according to Bush, but has routinely failed to get it.

Thirty-eight other states have routine monitoring programs, according to SEED Coalition’s classification.

Commercial Fishing
Since EPA and TDH testing and advisories are for non-commercial catches, one might assume eating fish and other seafood from a grocery store or in a restaurant is safe. The US Food and Drug Administration, which is charged with monitoring commercial fish and seafood, warns pregnant women not to eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish – the bigger fish that accumulate more mercury throughout their growth. However, FDA’s 2001 samples of grouper, fresh tuna, lobster, halibut, sablefish, and pollock also all showed mean mercury levels of 0.2 ppm or above.

Going to the Source
Electric power utilities are by far the largest contributor of mercury to the environment, releasing about 34 percent of the total into the air, according to EPA statistics. Coal fired plants are responsible for 99 percent of this total. Other contributors include municipal waste combustors, medical waste incinerators, and hazardous waste combustors.

Neither the EPA nor the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Coalition (TNRCC) – Texas’ environmental regulatory agency – limit mercury emissions from power plants or have established ambient air quality standards for mercury.

The Clean Smokestacks Act
Legislation being considered in both the US Senate and House of Representatives could significantly cut power plant emissions of the four major power plant pollutants – NOx, SO₂, mercury, and CO₂ – by 2007. Both the Clean Smokestacks Act (HR 1256), and the Clean Power Act (S556) call for cutting mercury emissions by 90 percent from 1999 levels.

Citizens can support this legislation by sending letters to their representatives directly from the SEED Coalition website at www.seedcoalition.org.

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SEED and Public Citizen’s Texas Office are also developing rules that they will submit to TNRCC to regulate power plant emissions reductions of 90 percent.