Sunday, May 07, 2006

Carping About Mercury

The efforts to stop the spread of the invasive Asian Carp are back in the news this week, but with mixed messages. On Thursday the US Senate passed a spending bill that included $400,000 to keep the electric barrier across the Illinois River from running out of money and shutting down. The barrier is designed to keep the carp from invading Lake Michigan.

Today the Chicago Tribune reports on attempts to create a new fishing industry aimed at harvesting the carp for profit. There's even a cute sidebar with suggested chinese dishes that can be created using carp, right down to the wine pairings.

Before hailing the carp as a new economic development prize, however, we need to keep in mind that DNR has an advisory recommending against eating too many carp caught in the Illinois River (among others), due to their high mercury levels.

The Peoria Journal Star pointed out the bad news in an editorial this week:

The Illinois Public Interest Research Group recently reported that fish in 36 counties - including Woodford, Knox and Schuyler - exceed federal safety guidelines for mercury content. Furthermore, the state Department of Natural Resources has warned sportfishers to restrict consumption of carp caught in the Illinois, Mackinaw, DuPage and Kankakee rivers due to mercury contamination.

This is bad news for the state's burgeoning Asian carp industry, which hopes to turn the pests into profit by harvesting them for food. That includes Havana-based Carp Protein Products, which promised to bring about 90 jobs to the river community. It's hard to imagine that commercial fisheries can establish a viable carp market with the mercury threat hanging around.

Illinois should fish or cut bait here. The state already has awarded $100,000 to commercial carp research, with another $750,000 proposed. Before lawmakers devote any more money to such efforts, they'd be well-advised to tackle mercury reduction and cleanup. In addition to the nascent Asian carp industry, the public's health is on the line.
The editorial adds yet another voice to the clamor supporting the Blagojevich Administration's push for a 90 percent reduction in mercury emissions from coal plants, which is currently pending before the Illinois Pollution Control Board.

Originally posted at Illinois EnviroBlog.

3 comments:

Yellow Dog Democrat 11:47 AM  

Where's all the mercury coming from, Jonathan?

Jonathan Goldman 7:47 AM  

The largest source (by far) of mercury going into Illinois' environment is coming from the old coal fired power plants in the state.

Skeeter 11:51 AM  

Jonathan,
I know there is an issue about "western coal" v. "eastern coal" and the different impact on the environment. Could you point us to some more detail on that issue? I seem to recall reading that the Bush Administration was actually providing breaks for the producers of the "bad coal."

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