Fish In Cda Basin Pass Menu Test They’Re Safe Eating, Says Scientist For Federal Agency

People can safely eat fish caught in the Coeur d’Alene River basin’s worst metals-contaminated lakes, according to a federal scientist.

Buck Grissom’s report confirms what less comprehensive studies had already suggested, according to Geoff Harvey of the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality.

“Like Paul Hanna of (Idaho) Fish and Game has said, ‘You’d have to have the diet of a seal for this to do any damage.”’ Hanna said he lifted that quote from a scientist with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), who looked at a smaller sample of fish a decade ago. It was he who recommended that signs go up along the Lower Coeur d’Alene River advising people not to eat a lot of fish.

But the stronger message of the signs remains valid despite the new report, officials said Thursday.

In Hanna’s words, the message is: “Don’t eat the dirt and don’t breathe the dust.”

That’s because river sediment contains lead, the biggest threat to human health posed by mining contaminants.

Grissom is also with the federal disease registry. He based his conclusions on the amount of metals found in 315 perch, pike and catfish. They were caught in Killarney, Medicine and Thompson lakes, which lie along the lower Coeur d’Alene River.

“The levels of lead, mercury and cadmium in the fish from the lateral chain lakes are not appreciably different from the levels of these metals in fish from other areas in the U.S.,” Grissom wrote in his report, which was done at the request of the Idaho Division of Health.

However, three of Grissom’s four conclusions acknowledged that mining operations have left other sources of lead that could raise health risks in the region.

His own organization has been studying blood lead levels in children, whose brains are most easily damaged by the metal.

Jerry Cobb of the Panhandle Health District said he’d accept the study as the final word that fish are safe to eat. He suggested that only people with already high levels of lead in their blood, and a lot of fish in their diet, would have any reason to be concerned about consuming metals in their catfish and perch filets.

“We’re glad it’s not a problem, glad people can go out and enjoy that recreation,” he said. “At the same time, they need to know we’re just on the front end of dealing with the entire (lead health) issue.”

An Idaho Conservation League spokesman was highly critical of Grissom’s report. Scott Brown called it a “whitewash” that does a grave disservice to the fishing public.

“There is no known safe level of exposure” to lead, Brown said. “At the lowest levels they’ve studied, they’ve demonstrated adverse affects on children’s brains.”

But another group is touting the report as evidence that mining-related health concerns are overstated.

“This fish study shows what we’ve been saying all along: The water is safe,” said Bret Bowers, spokesman for CLEAN (Community Leaders for EPA Accountability Now).

His group was created to protest expanded Environmental Protection Agency studies of metals contamination in the Coeur d’Alene basin.

The state used Environmental Protection Agency money to pay for the study. The fish were collected in 1995 and in 1996 - the same year that a flood washed away many of the signs warning recreationists about the hazards of metals in the soil and fish.

This sidebar appeared with the story: What’s next Sean Sheldrake of EPA said his agency will draw upon Grissom’s report as it looks at the combined health impact of various sources of metals, including tap water and play areas.