News Coverage
Mercury taints Orchard Lake; Michigan testing finds pollutants make fish unsafe to consume
Published December 22, 2004
ORCHARD LAKE, Mich. -- Hidden in the tranquil waters of one of Metro Detroit's most affluent communities is a danger that cannot be seen, smelled or tasted, yet in high doses can cause severe damage to the brain and kidneys.
While the risks are debatable, the worries have some anglers unwilling to eat fish from Orchard Lake and several other inland lakes with similar problems.
The culprit: mercury. The cause: unknown.
A recent study by the Michigan Environmental Council, using tissue from fish collected by the state in the past several years, found that Orchard Lake had fish with mercury levels of .75 parts per million, more than triple the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's .23 parts per million limit it considers safe for regular human consumption. It was the highest among a dozen Oakland County lakes with fish whose mercury levels tested higher than the EPA's limit.
"That's the reason I don't eat many fish at all," said Rob Zebrowski, a member of the Oakland County Bass Anglers club, which regularly fishes at lakes across the county.
He is one of several fishermen who stopped eating local fish when the Michigan Department of Community Health began issuing fish consumption advisories in the 1980s because of high mercury and other contaminant levels in inland lake fish. Rather than swear off fish, he'll only eat what is sold in stores.
The consumption advisory warns people not to eat more than one meal of predator fish -- such as bass, walleye, northern pike or muskellunge -- per week. Women of childbearing age and children younger than 15 are advised to eat no more than one meal per month.
Predator fish tend to have higher mercury levels because they eat other fish that have been exposed to mercury, raising the levels in their own bodies.
How the mercury got there is a question Ted Gish has been trying to answer for nearly a decade. A math and science professor at Madonna University on the St. Mary's campus, Gish regularly tests the soil and fish for mercury levels.
"From my understanding, I don't think it's a big problem," said Gish, who uses sensitive mercury testing devises in his college lab. "It's just below the (dangerous) levels."
Mercury testing in fish can be very tricky, he said.
"You can catch two identical fish and one will have it and one won't," he said.
He has two large pikes he got from the lake that he plans to test in the coming months.
Gish has tried to pinpoint where the mercury is coming from, but has come up empty handed.
"I have not found the smoking gun," he said.
Largely released from coal-firing power plants, mercury can travel across the region and the globe through the air and waterways, said David Gard, energy policy specialist for the environmental council, which issued the report. There are no coal-fired plants in Oakland County.
He said the source may be power plants in nearby counties or a medical waste disposal facility in Hamtramck.
"It is possible that a coal plant in the region is (polluting) water in Oakland County," Gard said.
The Michigan Waste Services medical waste incinerator and autoclave in Hamtramck was sued earlier this year by the Department for Environmental Quality for allegedly releasing more than 10 times the amount of mercury allowed.
DTE Energy operates five coal-powered plants -- Monroe, Belle River, St. Clair, Trenton Channel and River Rouge -- in Wayne, Macomb and Monroe counties. The five plants released an estimated 1,535 pounds of mercury into the air in 1998, the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group reported. DTE reported it released an estimated 1,500 pounds into the air in 2002.
Wyandotte also operates a municipal coal-fired plant in Wayne County.
"Some of those may be having an impact, as well as those from northern Ohio," Gard said.