TRIBAL PROGRAM NEWS
Tribal Members Get Details About Fish Toxicity and Tribal Health
by Ryan French, Tom Downey, and Sherri Groh
The Siletz Tribal Natural Resources
Department recently received a grant
from the Oregon Department of Human
Services (ODHS) under Oregon’s
SHINE Program (Superfund Health
Investigation and Education) to conduct
two staff trainings on the impact of fish
toxicity on tribal health. The training
sessions took place on March 15 at
Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Ore.
Tom Downey, environmental
protection specialist, facilitated and
Sherri Groh, environmental planner,
helped organize the meeting.
The majority of the Siletz Tribes’
distribution fish (Chinook) comes from
the Clackamas, Santiam, and McKenzie
River fish hatcheries, all major
tributaries to the Willamette River. They
spend at least some portion of their life
history in the Portland Harbor as out-
migrating juveniles and returning adults.
Chip Humphrey of the Environ
mental Protection Agency (EPA) and
remedial project manager for the
Portland Harbor Superfund site gave a
presentation on contaminant levels
found in fish tissue from the Willamette
River. He discussed current actions to
clean up the Portland Harbor and
outlined future studies to document
health concerns associated with
consumption of sturgeon, lamprey, and
salmon from the Willamette River.
Fish that tend to exhibit higher levels
of contaminants include larger older
fish that are high in fat and live year-round
in polluted waters and fish at the top of
the food chain (bioaccumulation).
The way bioaccumulation works is
that pollutants get into the sediment,
where they’re ingested by small organ
isms, such as plankton and bacteria, who
are then eaten by small juvenile fish.
Larger predatory fish, in turn, eat the
smaller fish and begin to accumulate large
amounts of these toxins in fatty tissue.
Fish species in the Portland Harbor
that have the greatest concentrations of
contaminants are resident fish such as
carp, bass, and northern pikeminnow.
Sturgeon are somewhat migratory and
can have contamination levels that
range from low to high depending on
size, age, and the amount of time spent
in polluted waters.
Salmon and steelhead usually have
lower contamination levels because of
10
□
Siletz News
□
the relatively short time they spend in
fresh water on their way to and from
the ocean. Lamprey haven’t been suffi
ciently studied and little is known about
the amount of time they may spend in
the Portland Harbor during the larval
and juvenile life-stages.
Dr. Pamela Bridgen and Valerie Lee,
with Environmental International Ltd.
(EI), provided an overview of tribal fish
consumption and the associated health
risks from fish contamination in the
Columbia Basin. EI is consulting for six
tribes that make up the trustee group
for the Portland Harbor Superfund Site.
Their presentation included a brief
overview of the risk assessment; the
relationship between fish consumption
and risk; recent studies in the Columbia
River basin, specifically the tribal risk
associated with these studies; and how
the Portland Harbor work relates to
contamination in fish. In the Willamette
Portland Harbor Superfund Site study,
the Lower Willamette Group (LWG),
which are the potential responsible
parties, have collected limited fish
tissue samples. To date, not enough fish
tissue information exists to conduct a
comprehensive risk assessment in the
Willamette Basin.
Government agencies use thresholds
to determine how much contaminated
fish is safe to consume. Without tribal
specific information, the government is
currently proposing to base the fish
consumption rate on the amount of fish
consumed by the “average American,”
which may result in the wrong
estimation of risk to tribal members.
According to EPA, the “average
American” consumes only 7.5 grams of
fish per day, which is only a “-ounce
portion or roughly the size of your
pinky fingernail per day.
The Columbia Basin study indicated
that the average tribal child there
consumed 24.8 grams per day and the
average adult consumed 63.2 grams per
day. Those who ate the most fish con
sumed 162 grams per day for children
and 389 grams per day for adults.
Dr. Dave Stone, public health
toxicologist for ODHS, discussed the
health benefits of consuming fish, the
risks associated with consuming fish
from polluted water, what fish tend to
have the highest concentration of
May 2004
chemicals, and ways to reduce exposure imposed new restrictions on the uses,
to these chemicals by properly cleaning storage, and disposal of these compounds.
and cooking your catch.
State agencies and the federal
The contaminants of concern government continue to evaluate and
include mercury, PCBs, pesticides, and clean up known contaminated sites.
dioxins, which at high doses have been
Mercury concentrations also are a
shown to affect mental, physical, and major concern in many Oregon lakes
reproductive developmental capacity as and advisories have been posted in certain
well as cause cancer and other illnesses. lakes, primarily throughout Douglas
One way to reduce exposure to County and in Eastern Oregon. These
pesticides, PCBs, and dioxin in fish is advisories can be found in the Oregon
to remove the skin before cooking; trim Department of Fish and Wildlife 2004
off the fatty areas along the side, back, Angling Regulations (page 10), by calling
and belly; and cook the fish by broiling, ODHS at 503-731-4012, or by visiting
baking, grilling, or smoking so the fats www.healthoregon.org/fishadv . The
Web site also contains guidelines on fish
and oils can drip off it.
EPA studies have shown that just cleaning and consumption.
Currently, ODHS has placed an advi
removing the skin can reduce toxin
levels by 50 percent and following these sory on the consumption of resident fish
cooking methods can dramatically species from the Willamette River and
reduce contaminant levels. At the Coast Fork Willamette to Cottage
meeting, Ryan French, Siletz Tribal Grove Reservoir for high mercury and
fisheries biologist, demonstrated the PCB levels. Children under age 6 should
proper tebhnique for removing the skin eat no more than one 4-ounce meal
and fat off a salmon fillet prior to every two months.
Women of childbearing age should
cooking to reduce exposure to toxins.
Mercury, however, cannot be eat no more than one 8-ounce meal eveiy
removed from fish through proper month. Healthy adults should eat no more
cleaning and cooking because it binds than one 8-ounce meal every two weeks.
All persons should reduce or avoid
to muscle tissue (fillet.) According to
ODHS, mercury in Oregon’s waterways eating fatty parts of fish. Removing the
is believed to come from a combination skin and all fat, eggs, and internal organs
can reduce exposure. The Lower
of natural volcanic sources in the
Columbia River, the mainstem of the
headwater streams and from a number
Willamette River, the Columbia Slough,
of man-made sources along the river.
and areas above Bonneville Dam have
Some of the PCBs, dioxins, and
advisories that include consumption of
chlorinated pesticide residues may come
freshwater clams and crayfish.
from widely distributed natural sources
It should be noted that fish not from
and some are from human activities that
the Columbia or Willamette basins also
occur throughout the Willamette River
and the Columbia River watersheds. In
See Fish Toxicity on page 11.
recent years, the U.S. government has