[5] Washington Says To Limit Consumption Of Puget Sound Chinook
The state of Washington recommended last week that resident chinook (blackmouth) from Puget Sound should be eaten only twice a month because of PCB levels found in the fish. But state health officials said other chinook salmon are OK to eat once a week.
The health advisory put Washington more in line with some other states with PCB problems. Resident chinook in the Great Lakes, for example, contain PCB levels of about one part per million--that's about ten times more than the highest levels found in local chinook, and still below FDA acceptable limits for commercial fish (2 parts per million).
PCB levels in fish have declined dramatically in the Great Lakes since the early 1970s when high-level predators like walleye pike contained about 25 ppm. The pike now sport PCB levels about 10 times less.
But consumers are still confused after several years of a concerted anti-farmed salmon campaign where supporters cited EPA information that calls for a lower acceptable PCB levels than the FDA. The EPA recommended a lower allowable level of PCBs for edible fish, 0.1 ppm.
Recent Indiana and Illinois sport fish consumption advisories say its OK to eat one meal a month for fish with PCB levels between .21 and 1.00 ppm. Most chinook from Puget Sound are well below that, containing around .05 ppm, while farmed salmon from Chile contains only about .02 ppm.
Washington governor Chris Gregoire used the press release from the state's Department of Health to stump for cleaning up Puget Sound, though it will take decades for PCB levels to decline by much, even though the organic compounds were outlawed in the late 1970s.
"Many fish from Puget Sound remain a smart choice for the dinner table; however, this news is another sign that Puget Sound is sick and we must take action now," said Gregoire. "The Puget Sound Partnership is tackling this challenge head on."
With state legislators headed to Olympia in January with a large budget surplus to deal with, supporters of the cleanup effort are hoping to get their share, and have rolled the Sound's salmon recovery effort into that effort.
But it won't be cheap. In the PSP draft recommendations released two weeks ago, the billions add up quickly, on top of the several billion spent already by state and federal agencies. That includes another $500 million in state spending to clean up contaminated sites over the next 12 years, about half the public-sector cost. Private spending will be even more.
The salmon recovery effort itself is pegged at nearly $2 billion over the next 10 years, with another $2 billion to reduce stormwater runoff and improve its quality.
The next upgrades of Puget Sound treatment plants might cost as much as $5 billion, says the PSP, which could nearly double if treatment included reuse and reclamation.
But that isn't all. Another $3 billion over 10 years would be needed to reduce non-point pollution sources.
So PSP big shots, including local salmon czar Bill Ruckelshaus, will be heading to Olympia soon to begin the fundraising effort. In other venues, Ruckelshaus has suggested a small addition to the sales tax to generate revenue for salmon recovery efforts. -B. R.
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