Fish to be tested for carcinogen

State biologists will begin testing fish at Lake Wateree next year for PCBs, a suspected cancer-causing pollutant that federal data show has tainted predator species in the popular reservoir.

Wateree was among the 17 percent of lakes tested nationally in which fish registered PCB levels above a federal health safety standard this decade, according to data released last month by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control — charged with warning the public if fish are unsafe to eat — said it wants to know more about PCBs in the lake 30 miles northeast of Columbia.

'Testing will give us better information,' DHEC Media Relatios Director Thom Berry said. 'Once we do that, it will give us more data in which to make some conclusions.'

The federal data were collected eight years ago for a baseline report assessing chemicals in fish at 500 lakes across the nation. DHEC apparently has not checked Lake Wateree's fish for PCBs routinely since the 2001 federal tests.

Officials with the state agency said in a Dec. 4 e-mail to The State newspaper that they had gathered some data in the 1990s on PCBs. But the e-mail said they did not think the levels were enough to warn the public about eating Lake Wateree's fish. The agency had no 'available' data since 2001, the e-mail said.

Berry could not say last week if the agency would issue advisories against eating some types of fish at Lake Wateree. The lake now has no advisories telling people to limit fish consumption. He said DHEC had not tested in some cases because of 'a resource issue,' but the department has recently hired a laboratory worker to do that.

The danger

PCBs, short for polychlorinated biphenyls, are manufactured chemicals once used extensively by industry as coolants and lubricants.

They can settle into waterways through air or water pollution and, over time, build up in fish. Production of PCBs was banned in the United States during the late 1970s as evidence mounted that they were dangerous to people's health. Scientists have found PCBs to cause liver cancer in laboratory animals, and the EPA has classified PCBs as a probable human carcinogen. The chemical also can cause developmental problems in children, including a decrease in short-term memory, and impair children's immune systems.

Lake Wateree is the second major reservoir in the Midlands found by the EPA to have elevated levels of a contaminant in fish tested, according to data used to compile the Nov. 10 baseline study.

At Lake Murray, largemouth bass showed elevated amounts of the toxic metal mercury, according to the data. DHEC testing since 2000 verified elevated mercury contamination in 40 percent of the bass tested at Lake Murray, although the agency said the pollution levels weren't consistent enough to warrant health warnings.

The EPA's national study found some level of mercury or PCBs in fish from every body of water tested across the country. An additional 49 percent of the lakes contained mercury levels in game fish that were above a federal health standard, including Lake Murray.

State officials for years have warned of high PCB levels in Lake Hartwell. But people familiar with Lakes Murray and Wateree were surprised that fish there also showed elevated contaminant levels.

'I don't think PCBs were on anyone's radar,'' Catawba Riverkeeper David Merryman said.

PCB levels in largemouth bass at Lake Wateree registered 80.223 parts per billion, more than six times the health safety standard used by the EPA in its November report.

The testing was done on largemouth bass and carp; EPA officials caution that the sampling was limited.

Still, the findings could spur action at the state level, according to the EPA.

A potential blow

The findings at lakes Wateree and Murray are a potential blow to recreation and tourism at both of the popular waterways.

Like Lake Murray northwest of Columbia, Wateree is filled with weekend boaters, anglers and swimmers during the summer. Thousands of people also live or own weekend homes along its 242-mile shoreline.

Merryman, the riverkeeper for the Catawba River watershed, said the EPA's recent report shocked him.

'In this report, Wateree has some really high readings; they are quite drastic,'' Merryman said. 'DHEC needs to get in there and find out what these concentrations are. If those levels the EPA found are true, we need fish advisories.''

Merryman said DHEC should have been checking fish before now to ensure public safety.

'This is DHEC being non- aggressive and kind of overlooking an issue they really should be tackling,'' Merryman said.

Dick Foote, chairman of a Lake Wateree citizens committee that monitors water quality, also would like to know more.

'What does it mean overall? And what does it mean in the long term?' he asked. 'I'm a little concerned when we jump to conclusions.'