Pollution prompts warning about fish

WASHINGTON — One of every three lakes in the United States and nearly one-quarter of the nation's rivers contain enough pollution that people should limit or avoid eating fish caught there.

Every state but Alaska and Wyoming issued fish advisories covering some and occasionally all of their lakes or rivers in 2003, according to a national database maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency and updated every year.

In Utah, advisories have been issued for just three bodies of water, American Fork Creek in Utah County and Ashley Creek and Stewart Lake in the Uinta Basin, according to Walt Baker, acting director of the state Division of Water Quality.

"At least in Utah, this has not been a compelling problem," Baker said. The advisories apply to pregnant or nursing women and to children under 15, he said, although everyone should exercise "a certain amount of moderation" in eating fish from those areas.

The problem identified in American Fork Creek in 2002 is arsenic contamination from mining, Baker said. For Ashley Creek and Stewart Lake, the issue since 1991 has been selenium that leeched into the water supply from now-abandoned sewage lagoons.

Though the number of advisories rose to 3,094, up from 2,814 in 2002, according to figures released Tuesday, EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt said the increase was due to more monitoring, not more pollution.

Nearly all the advisories involve contaminants such as mercury, dioxins, PCBs, pesticides and heavy metals, including arsenic, copper and lead. Currently they cover 35 percent of the nation's lake acreage and 24 percent of river miles.

Leavitt said mercury pollution from industry is decreasing, though he cited figures only as recent as five years ago. Primary sources of mercury pollution include coal-burning power plants, the burning of hazardous and medical waste and production of chlorine. It also occurs naturally in the environment.

The advisories cover fish caught during recreational and sport fishing, not deep-sea commercial fishing or fish farming operations.

"It's about trout, not tuna. It's about what you catch on the shore, not what you buy on the shelf," Leavitt said. "This is about the health of pregnant mothers and small children, that's the primary focus of our concern."

But he also acknowledged that virtually every acre of lakes and mile of rivers could eventually be covered by advisories.