News Coverage
Easy On The Fish, Mayor
Published August 5, 2007
Last month Mayor Daley said "sure" he'd nibble on fish out of the cleaned-up Chicago River.
So the Sun-Times took the bait and sent outdoors writer Dale Bowman on a fishing expedition in the waters once deemed a "sewer."
You can eat some fish from the Chicago River, Mayor. But don't make it a habit.
That's the advice the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency dispensed based on the level of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, found in the rock bass, bluegill and pumpkinseed Bowman reeled in.
"I would recommend no more than one 8-ounce meal per month for each of the three fish," the state EPA's chief toxicologist Tom Hornshaw said, stressing that Illinois fish advisories are administered after a more thorough testing process that factors in the weight and length of the fish.
Last month, the Sun-Times sent Bowman's 6- to 7½-inch fish to Pace Analytical Services Inc., an environmental laboratory in Green Bay, Wis., where they were tested for mercury and other toxins, including PCBs, which are especially detrimental to fetal development.
The PCBs in the fish weren't dangerously high --but were high enough for them to be deemed unsafe for daily consumption.
The good news, Hornshaw said, was that the level of pesticides DDT and DDE in the fish was relatively low, and the mercury was between 0.022 and 0.043 milligrams per kilogram -- way below the 0.05 limit that is safe for children and women of child-bearing age.
"If we were just worried about mercury, we would say, 'Eat all you want,' " said Hornshaw, also a chairman of Illinois' fish contaminant monitoring program.
"The contaminants that were found in those fish are very low. You could go and buy fish at the store that would have just as much or more contaminants in them," said Tod Noltemeyer, project manager at Pace.
Even if the river is less polluted than it was three decades ago, some think it's still a little fishy to eat its products.
"These fish are really contaminated, and it's not healthy to be eating them," said Renee Sharp, a senior analyst with the Washington, D.C., Environmental Working Group.
"Anyone eating anything out of the Chicago River isn't taking their life seriously," added Lloyd DeGrane of Perch America, a Lake Michigan conservation group. "If you're going to fish in the Chicago River, practice 'catch and release.' "
DeGrane pointed out that all the fish caught by the Sun-Times are pan fish, which, unlike carp and catfish, usually swim in shallow water and don't eat off the bottom, where more harmful toxic sludge is concentrated.
"If anyone catches a carp under 12 inches in the Chicago River, I would recommend eating it in only six meals per year," Hornshaw said. "But if they are over 12 inches, I would stay away. Carps are fatty and mop up the PCBs pretty well."
Daley, meanwhile, hasn't yet sampled Chicago River fish, spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard said.
Heard thinks Daley was "half-joking" when he said he'd eat the fish, but said the Sun-Times' findings speak to the recent improvements in the river.
She still thinks her boss would give Chicago River fish a try, though.
"He is a pretty adventurous eater," Heard said last week. "But I would not like to see the mayor risk his life to prove his point."
