Health advisories cover
many area fishing spots
by Steve Hinnefeld
for the Sunday Herald-Times
August 24, 1997
Twenty years after the government banned most uses of PCBs, it's still
a bad idea to eat fish from area streams that were polluted with the chemicals,
state officials say. But the state's fish consumption advisory covers much
more than PCB-tainted stretches of Clear Creek, Salt Creek and Richland
Creek.
 It also warns against
eating too much of certain fish from the relatively clean waters of Lake
Monroe and still-polluted water ways such as the East Fork of the White
River.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources, State Depart ment of Health
and Department of Environmental Management issue the advisory. "We're
not discouraging people from eating fish," said Dollis Wright, director
of environmental epidemiology with the state health department. "In
fact, fish are good for you. Our whole purpose is to provide people with
information so they can make good choices on what fish to eat." But
many anglers are only vaguely aware of the state recommendations. Some won't
eat any fish they catch. Others dismiss the warnings or refuse to hear them.
And while state waterways have generally gotten cleaner, the list of lakes
and streams covered by the fish advisory has grown. It takes up 20 pages
in a 52-page booklet that also includes health information and suggestions
on how to prepare fish to minimize the risks. Wright said the advisory got
bigger partly because the state knows more about fish contami nation, and
partly because it has become more cautious and conservative.
"We are being more protective of health, which is what we want to
be," she said.
Levels of risk
The warnings range from Group 2, a suggestion that most people shouldn't
eat fish more than once a week; to Group 5, a warning against eating any
fish. And they are more stringent for women who are pregnant, breast-feeding
or plan to have children and for children under 15 - groups that are more
sensitive to chemical risks. They target areas where fish contain mercury
and PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls. Both can cause a range of health
problems.
Bigger fish, bottom-feeding fish and fish that eat other fish are riskier
to eat. They've had more time and opportunity to build up contaminants in
their bodies. In the Bloomington-Bedford area, there are Group 5 "don't-
eat" warnings for the following: - Clear Creek in southern Monroe County
and Salt Creek and Pleasant Run Creek in Law rence County, all downstream
from the PCB site at Blooming ton's old Winston-Thomas sewage plant.
- Bigger largemouth bass, river carpsuckers, redhorse and buffalo in
the East Fork of the White River in Lawrence County. There are also Group
3 and 4 advisories for big catfish and small bass in the White River and
for certain fish in Richland Creek in Monroe and Owen counties. Those advisories
mean chil dren under 15 and women who are pregnant, breast-feeding or plan
to have children should never eat the fish.
There's a Group 3 warning for big bass in Lake Monroe and Yellowwood
Lake and big catfish in Lake Lemon.
Childbearing women and children shouldn't eat those fish, the advisory
says. And no one should eat them more than once a month.
State officials suggest applying Group 2 consideration to any fish not
listed in the advisory. That means they shouldn't be eaten more than once
a week; and children and pregnant women shouldn't eat them more than once
a month.
Warnings often ignored There's a summary of the advisory in the current
state fishing guide. But if people want to know specifics, they have to
get the booklet from the state or local health department.
Then they have to decide whether to abide by it. Stanley Fulkerson has
been property manager at the state's Williams Dam site on the White River
for 25 years. He said state warnings aren't likely to carry much weight
with people who eat river fish.
"There's a tendency for them to ignore these advisories, just based
on a few die-hard local fishermen," he said. "I've heard it more
than once: 'I've been eating it all my life and it ain't hurt me.' "It's
just a way of life," he said. "River life is a whole lot different
than living on a lake." At Lake Monroe, there's a lot of catch-and-release
fishing - especially for bass, the tournament fish that's the subject of
a Group 3 advisory in the lake. "For a bass fisherman, it's a mortal
sin to kill a bass," said Jim Fleetwood, a Bloomington tournament fisherman.
"There's only so many bass in the lake and only so many lakes around.
If we kept bass at the rate a lot of people keep crappie and bluegill, there
would be no fish around for our kids." Many people do eat a lot of
pan fish - bluegill and crappie - from Lake Monroe, however. On the other
hand, many people overestimate the risks and refuse to eat fish from the
lake, said Brian Schoenung, assistant fisheries biologist at Avoca State
Fish Hatchery. "It's unfortunate, too," he said. "In many
cases, there's nothing wrong with eating fish that you catch. It's probably
safer than eating shellfish from the supermarket."
Creeks rarely fished
Schoenung said he thinks there's not much fishing in Salt Creek in Lawrence
County, where there's a don't-eat advisory because of PCBs. That's because
there just aren't many good public access points to the creek.
Salt Creek right below the Lake Monroe dam is fished heavily, especially
for walleye, crappies and hybrid bass. "We suspect most of those fish
got shot out through the drain structures," Schoenung said.
The state tested fish at the dam several years ago, he said, and "they
came back clean." But some of the fish may have lived in the creek
for some time, moving downstream as far as the confluence with Clear Creek.
Bloomington angler Dan Combs, a Harrodsburg native, said he doesn't know
of anyone who eats fish from Clear Creek, where there's a don't-eat advisory
for PCBs.
People stopped fishing there because it was downstream from the Winston-Thomas
sewage plant. But it wasn't PCBs they were worried about. "Not since
I was a kid have I seen anyone fishing for food in there," said Combs,
who's 44. "It just got such a horrid reputation. And what gave it the
horrid reputation was the Win ston-Thomas raw sewage instead of the PCBs." |
