UT Lake Carp report

[John Dubock]

from Wednesday's SL Tribune: the question not answered is where are the PCB's coming from and what does the State plan to do about it? If it hurt real estate values would someone be motivated to blow a whistle?

Lots of carp at Yuba, is that next?

Beware PCB-laden Utah Lake carp
Carcinogen: Other fish are likely even more dangerous because they store it faster
By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune



Take care not to eat too much Utah Lake carp, state officials warned Tuesday, sparking new fears among anglers that the contamination has spoiled one of Utah's favorite fishing spots.
The PCB alert - Utah's first ever - is the state's seventh consumer warning for fish and waterfowl. But seasoned sportsmen suspect it is only the beginning of bad news at Utah Lake, where predatory walleye, white bass and channel catfish are more likely to concentrate PCBs in their bodies but have not yet been tested.
"I am, in my gut, worried, and you should be also, for people consuming" these fish, said Dan Potts of the Salt Lake County Fish and Game Association and a devoted Utah Lake carp eater.
"My assumption is that everything else [in Utah Lake] is at least as high or higher," he said.
Officials from the state departments of Health, Environmental Quality and Natural Resources issued the advisory jointly.
It urges adults to limit their consumption of Utah Lake carp to one 8-ounce serving a month or less. Women who may become or are pregnant, nursing mothers and young children should avoid it altogether, the advisory says.
PCBs are a group of chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls linked to cancer and other harmful health effects, including neurological damage. While much higher levels of PCBs are generally associated with health damage, there is cause to be wary about eating too much Utah Lake carp, said Jason Scholl, a Health Department toxicologist.
"If you do eat a lot of fish and you eat it a lot of the time, you may be increasing your risk of cancer," he said.
The PCB discovery was kind of an accident. Wildlife officials have been talking about removing the 7.5 million carp from Utah Lake as part of their program to restore the endangered June sucker fish.
Getting rid of the carp, which account for about 90 percent of Utah Lake fish, would help the entire lake ecosystem, the thinking goes. So, the recovery team was testing carp for heavy metals, pesticides and other dangerous chemicals to get a sense of how they might be sold as cow feed or some other marketable product.
That's when the PCB levels came in at more than double the safe level set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Agency regards contamination at .02 parts per million or higher as worrisome. The Utah Lake




carp came in at nearly .05 ppm.
"There are a number of other species [besides carp] that people fish for there," noted Reed Harris, director of the June sucker program for the Natural Resources Department. "Frankly, we don't know anything about those species."
The Water Quality Department's John Whitehead said PCB tests are already planned for those other Utah Lake species beginning late this month or early June, weather permitting. Those results probably will not be in until mid-summer, he said.
In addition, PCB tests probably will be added to some of the 1,200 fish samples that were already on the state's to-do list for 2006.
The same three agencies plan statewide testing to learn how widespread mercury contamination is in Utah lakes and streams. A powerful neurotoxin, methylmercury, has been found in some of the highest levels ever detected in the Great Salt Lake.
A broad-based Mercury Work Group is studying how to tackle the heavy metal, and now, because of the contaminated carp, similar questions are being raised on how to deal with PCBs in Utah Lake.
"It's extremely troubling," said Ed Kent, chairman of the Utah Anglers Coalition. "But where do we go from here?"
"I'm afraid the damage has already been done."
Carp, with its numerous fine bones, is not appreciated by many anglers, but it is favored in Asian cuisine. Neither state officials nor the sport-fishing groups have estimates of how many non-English speaking Utahns might be relying heavily on Utah Lake carp as a mainstay or whether special outreach is needed to warn them of the potential danger. All the advisories being issues are in English.
PCBs build up in fat tissue. So cutting out the skin, combined with proper cooking, can go a long way in removing the hazard, according to state agencies