I would be curious if any of the biologists who frequent this board concur with the article:

High level of PCBs taints Lake Washington fish

By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times staff reporter

Some of the most popular sport fish in Lake Washington contain surprisingly dangerous levels of toxic chemicals called PCBs, state health officials said yesterday, warning anglers to limit their consumption.

People should not eat large perch or cutthroat, which are among the most commonly caught fish in the lake, more than once a month, officials said. For cutthroat under 12 inches, the recommended maximum is three meals a month, and for perch under 10½ inches, no more than four meals monthly.

The Washington Department of Health also warned people never to eat the lake's northern pikeminnow, also known as squawfish. Though not favored by many anglers, pikeminnows collected in the lake contained up to 1,000 parts per billion (ppb) of PCBs — the highest level ever measured in any Washington fish species, said health department toxicologist Dave McBride.

PCBs are suspected human carcinogens, and consumption of tainted fish has been linked to learning deficits in children.

At least one sport species did get a clean bill of health from the preliminary testing, he added: Levels of PCBs in sockeye salmon were very low and pose no health risk.

The pikeminnows, yellow perch and cutthroat tested also were tainted by lower levels of mercury and pesticides, including DDT.

"It all came as a surprise," said McBride. "This is definitely old stuff, because PCBs and DDT have been banned for several decades."

Officials don't know where the contaminants are coming from, though they suspect a combination of urban runoff and pollution from industries once located around the lake.

"There's no single hot spot, or source," McBride said. "But historically, there have been a great number of different activities on or near the lake, from industry to shipbuilding, aerospace, military facilities, solid-waste disposal."

PCBs, DDT and mercury all can persist in the environment for long periods of time and tend to concentrate in animals higher up the food chain.

That's why the levels in pikeminnows were so high, said Dave Beauchamp, a University of Washington fisheries professor who was involved in collecting the data with graduate student Jenifer McIntyre.

"They're top predators ... and they can live up to 20-plus years."

Cutthroat contained an average of 375 ppb of PCBs, while yellow perch averaged 191 ppb, McBride said.

All are well above the generally accepted safe levels of 50-100 ppb, which is why health officials decided to issue the warning, even though the total number of fish sampled was very small, McBride said. McIntrye collected and analyzed 82 fish.

The PCB concentrations are for the whole fish.

"We realize the concentrations we are seeing are probably more elevated than what we would see if people were eating only fillets," McBride said.

Jerry Beppu, who for 40 years has operated Linc's Fishing Tackle on Rainier Avenue, said he is skeptical of the warning and doubts anglers will heed it.

"I have guys that go down there and catch their fish and eat it daily, especially perch," said Beppu, whose shop is a regular bait stop for many Lake Washington anglers. "I don't think they're going to stop because of somebody telling them there's PCBs in there."

Last year, the state warned pregnant women and children to limit consumption of smallmouth and largemouth bass from all state lakes, including Lake Washington, because of mercury contamination.

The Health Department is asking other agencies, including the federal Environmental Protection Agency, to help pay for a more thorough examination of contaminant levels in Lake Washington fish.

Last year, the Legislature cut funding for a state Ecology Department program to measure toxin levels in fish.

Each PCB analysis costs $500-$1,000, McBride said, and the agency hopes to test at least 100 more fish.

Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com

I work in the environmental chemistry field and have some comments about this article. I have written before about how some of these toxins persist for long periods of time in the environment and have the tendency to bioaccumulate. The three toxins mentioned in this article - mercury, DDT and PCB's tend to both persist and bioaccumulate.

As far as sources go PCB's are man made compounds used mainly as electrical insulators. There are no natural sources of PCB's. Same goes for DDT and all other organo pesticides and herbicides. DDT have not been used in this country for many years, yet DDT contamination is still showing up.

There are two pieces of the puzzel to the mercury contamination in LK WA. Piece #1 -Mercury is a naturally occuring element. No new mercury has ever been created by man. A portion of the mercury contamination in LK WA is geologic mercury. Man has not played any role in this geologic mercury enetring the environment. Piece #2 - Man has played a role in nongeologic mercury entering the environment. There are a varity of sources of this mercury (industrial, residental waste, etc). The question that scientists are trying to answer is what portion of the mercury is nongeologic and what can be done to reduce this source of mercury.

We are coming to the conclusion that many water bodies around the country are not as pristine as previously thought. Ecspecially when it comes to mercury. If you look low enough mercury will be found in every water body that is studied. Organic contaminants have popped up in many surprizing as well.

This will continue to come up in the news media as breaking stories. Keep in mind that this contamination is not necessarily new, but has only recently been found.

In the 50's metro was formed to clean up LK WA and LK Samm. LK WA was so contaiminated that swimming in many parts of the lake was forbidden. LK WA still has some environmental problems (probably steming from its urban setting), but consider how far we have come in fifty years.

DOE and DOH set max consumption limits for the weakest groups in our society. Pregnant women and young childern are the most suseptable to contaminants in the environment. Healthy adults can hadle much higher amounts of contaminants with no ill effects.

This was kind of a rambling collection of my thoughts on the article. Mores I'm sure have other thoughts, I would like to hear them.

So...are the recent mercury warnings for pelagic fish..i.e. tuna,swordfish...the result of better testing or is mercury pollution increasing in the pacific? Isn't the non geologic mercury mainly a byproduct of coal burning power plants?? It seems suspicious that there's been an increase in coal burning plants due to increased industrial production in China and at the same time we're now getting warnings about Pacific fish with high mercury levels????

Bugger, doesn't mercury also accumulate in lakes as fallout from coal-fired power plant emissions? I believe there used to be coal-fired power plants in Seattle. Also, few here seem concerned, but the PCB levels in Lake Washington fish were very high, in the case of squawfish the highest level ever recorded in fish in Washington, 1071 parts per billion. Cutts and perch had lesser levels, but still elevated at 377 ppb and 191 ppb respectively. I have eaten perch from the lake before, but won't anymore. I've also caught many cutts, but always released them.

Don't forget, all, that Coal Creek, which runs into Lake Washington, comes out of an area of former coal fields. I suspect that might be a continuing source of mercury, more so since the area was mined and broken up.

Kinda distressing.