State and local health officials are advising anglers to limit
their intake of fish caught from Anderson and Stevens Creek
reservoirs following testing showing elevated levels of mercury and
PCBs in fish at both reservoirs.
State and local health officials are advising anglers to limit their intake of fish caught from Anderson and Stevens Creek reservoirs following testing showing elevated levels of mercury and PCBs in fish at both reservoirs.
The contaminants are not detected in the reservoirs’ water, but are present in smaller organisms consumed by fish. Eating too many of the fish, according to health officials’ warnings, could endanger human health.
“In Santa Clara County, we regularly conduct water-quality testing in all of the reservoirs, looking for contaminants like these,” said Walt Wadlow of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. “Although mercury is found in sediment and in fish, it has never been detected in our drinking water resources.”
According to a study released today by regional water regulators, some fish sampled from Anderson and Stevens Creek reservoirs – as well as from eight other reservoirs in the Bay Area – exceeded human health guidelines for methylmercury, an organic form of mercury, and for polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a group of industrial chemicals.
In response, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department is distributing interim fish-consumption guidelines for the two reservoirs in cooperation with the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
The multilingual advisories recommend that women of childbearing age and children under the age of 18 eliminate largemouth bass from their diets, and limit themselves to one meal a month of carp, black crappie and/or channel catfish.
Older women and men are advised to limit their intake of largemouth bass and/or channel catfish to no more than once a month, and to limit carp and/or black crappie meals to four or less per month.
In Anderson Reservoir, east of Morgan Hill, and Stevens Creek Reservoir, above Cupertino, largemouth bass contained the highest concentrations of mercury while carp and channel catfish showed the highest levels of PCB contamination.
