Louisiana Health Department Breathes Life into Mercury Program, Resumes Testing Fish for the Heavy Metal
Following an eight-year hiatus, Louisiana Department of Environmental
Quality employees are back in the Atchafalaya River Basin looking for
fish that contain unsafe levels of mercury.
The
department's mission is to catch fish randomly and test them for
mercury contamination, which will then be formulated into data that the
state Department of Health will use to issue fish consumption
advisories, according to a report by The Advocate. At present the
advisories are outdated, as DEQ ceased regular mercury testing of fish –
a program that cost state taxpayers $500,000 a year – in 2008 as part
of budget cuts to most state agencies under the administration of
then-Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Late in 2015, however, the Jindal
administration announced that it would resume the testing, and that is
now beginning to occur, say officials, who added that workers will begin
in southwest Louisiana. That said, environmentalists and other state
officials are hopeful that lawmakers and current Gov. John Bel Edwards
will be able to come up with more funding to also revive additional
aspects of the mercury testing program.
Educating the public
In
recent days, and for the first time since 2008, a group of
environmental organizations met with state DEQ officials and others with
an interest in the project to discuss the mercury program of the past
and how it could be revived in the present day.
"We're hoping to
get everything geared up and keep it running this time," Al Hindrichs, a
DEQ environmental scientist in the water permits division, told The Advocate.
Barry Kohl, who heads up the Louisiana
Audubon Council and is a longtime proponent of the mercury program,
told the news site that staffers and Secretary Chuck Carr Brown, a
onetime DEQ employee until he was appointed this year to head up the
agency by Edwards, are all supportive of revitalizing the mercury
testing program. Besides examining fish,
the groups noted that there ought to be more public awareness campaigns
to education state residents about the dangers of consuming fish with
higher levels of mercury.
"If the public doesn't understand the
problem and don't understand the fish they're eating is contaminated,
then we really have a problem," Kohl said.
Adequate public awareness
can be as easy as putting cautionary warning signs back in waterways
that direct people to the state's guidelines regarding what fish species
are safe to consume, as well as obtaining additional information about
the annual fishing guide that is published by the state's Department of
Wildlife and Fisheries, said Kohl.
The Advocate reported further:
Other aspects of the program
include locating and cleaning up mercury-containing gas meter sites and
enforcement of mercury-reduction regulations, Kohl said. But, he added,
it all comes down to money and finding a way to pay for the additional
work in a department that has seen staffing cuts during the past eight
years.
New life
The program's reimplementation
comes from a four-year. $1.5 million consent agreement between the DEQ
and NRG Louisiana Gathering, which earmarked the money for a beneficial
environmental project. And while that level of funding doesn't match the
previous level of $500,000 a year before the program was cut – a dollar
amount that enabled officials to collect fish samples at 100 sites a
year – it is nevertheless a start, officials have noted.
At
current funding levels staff will be able to visit about 36 sites in
2016 in the southwestern portion of the state, with at least seven
already done, said Hindrichs.
"But we're hitting it where it's important," he told The Advocate.
Officials
said that DEQ was first revisiting sites that were on the state's
advisory list before, and if there are enough funds left over at year's
end, they will next test areas with readings high enough they were close
to making the advisory list. Officials have so far not determined which
region of the state will be tested next year.
Sources:
TheAdvocate.com
DEQ.Louisiana.gov
NaturalNews.com
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