Mercury contamination in Great Lakes wildlife more widespread than thought

[The Straight Story]

Mercury contamination in Great Lakes wildlife more widespread than thought

Mercury contamination is more widespread and affects more species of wildlife around the Great Lakes than scientists previously thought.

Despite decades of cuts in mercury emissions which have led to a 20% decline in the presence of the contaminant, levels in some species have begun going up again in the last 10 years, scientists said in a new report issued today.

“The extent and nature of the problem is more severe than we thought,” said Charles Driscoll, a study author and professor at Syracuse University.

...

Among its surprises: mercury levels are higher in fish in inland lakes than in the five big lakes, and areas usually thought of as pristine—heavily forested with wetlands—are among those with the highest mercury concentrations. For example, there were hot spots in the Ottawa National Forest in the Upper Peninsula and in the Adirondack mountains.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20111011/NEWS01/310110004/Mercury-contamination-Great-Lakes-wildlife-more-widespread-than-thought?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE

[GeorgeGist]

1. An unbecoming choice ... your life or your job?

The new report comes at the same time that Congress is trying to halt new Environmental Protection Agency air pollution rules that would cut mercury from coal-fired power plants, the largest source of mercury emissions, and from cement plants. The U.S. House last week passed a bill to delay the regulations because legislators said they would kill jobs. The mercury rule was scheduled to become final next month. There are 144 coal plants in the eight states surrounding the Great Lakes

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. awful. n/t

[hatrack]

3. Oops!

I'm pretty sure that's what'll be on our collective tombstone . . .

[Dragonfli]

4. There is a large coal powered plant contaminating the Niagara river right near where I live

Huntly I believe it's called.

When I was a child a long time ago we used to fish in the river and eat what we caught.
I would not risk the mercury exposure any more, there was some analysis a couple of years ago that got some play in Buffalo, it appears the mercury level is quite a bit too high in the river fish to be safe. It was largely ignored at the time but is a real problem now that more and more people are fishing the river just to get food these days (a favorite is smoked sheephead, although I don't care for it myself, being a bottom feeder and likely rather toxic)

[Octafish]

5. BP gets to dump more than a kilo each year right into Lake Michigan

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2007-07-30-mercury_N.htm

[Dragonfli]

6. People in WNY felt the new EPA rules were beneficial to WNY

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain/article/6601/0/1825307/Environment/WNY.benefits.from.EPA.rule

I guess they plan on replacing the gift in the stocking with a lump of coal after all (for the profit of a few companies).
Our only gripe I heard about the new regs was that more needed to be done regarding the coke processing plant.

[KoKo]

7. We ALL have over Mercury Exposure! And, it get's worse with the pollution of Seafood from

Gulf of USA and the polluted stuff from Vietnam and other places where we are imported.

Then...there's the "geneticaly modified Salmon" that's going for approval from FDA...:eyes:

I'm not a vegan or freaky fooder but there's something bad for all of us and our kids and grandkids and US going on out there!