Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010

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Mitchell Miller, WTOP Radio
Colleen Kelleher, wtopnews.com

WASHINGTON - As a heavily polluted urban river the Anacostia River suffers from problems not found in rural rivers -- namely toxics.

Those toxics, over the years, have prompted swimming and fishing advisories. Swimming is not allowed in the river, and while fishing is allowed, catch and release fishing is recommended.

"I personally would not want to eat any fish at all out of the Anacostia, and most of the fishermen I talk to -- don't," says Doug Siglin, who directs the Anacostia River Initiative for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation program.

In a city with five bridges over the Anacostia River, highway runoff contributes significantly to the pollution.

That runoff from exhaust, asphalt particles, spilled engine oil and other fossil fuel products is blamed for cancer among catfish. The road runoff altered the DNA of brown bullhead catfish, according to DNA analysis done by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Some of the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) that are formed from fossil fuels contain carcinogens.

PAHs are a group of chemicals formed during the incomplete burning of coal, oil, gas, wood, garbage or other organic substances, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. They can be found in everything from dyes and plastics to pesticides and asphalt to creosote and roofing tar.

"These fuels go up in the air and then come back down and settle on impervious surfaces," says Robert Boone, director of the Anacostia Watershed Society. "When it rains or snows, this chemical soup washes off into the river and settles in the bottom, where the catfish -- the bottom feeders are. So all these bottom feeders are impaired by these chemicals."

Up to 68 percent of the catfish tested by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had liver cancer. About 23 percent of the fish collected in 2000 and 2001 survey had skin tumors. The rates are among the highest in the nation. The USGS says an area is considered highly contaminated when liver tumor rates are above 5 percent, and skin tumor rates are above 12 percent.

Fishermen know about the problems with the catfish, carp and eel -- the river's bottom feeders.

"A long time ago I heard they wasn't safe to eat, so that's why I don't eat them," says Johnny Cain, who's been casting his reel in the Anacostia for more than 40 years.

A 2004 study done by the D.C. Water Resources Research Institute and the University of the District of Columbia with the support of the USGS used clams to determine the levels of toxic contaminants at various sites along the river. The study looked at PAHs, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), chlordane and pesticides. The study's final report was issued in May 2005.

The two-week study suggested the highest accumulation of PAHs were in the Northeast Branch of the river below industrial parks in Prince George's County.

Chlordane, a chemical banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1988, poses problems for the Anacostia. Chlordane is a man-made chemical. It's was used to treat termites and known by the trade names of Octachlor and Velsicol 1068. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, chlordane's only approved use between 1983 and 1988 was to control termites. It was applied underground around the foundations of homes.

"Everybody gets treated for termites sooner or later," says Edward Graham, director of water resources for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

"It is a persistent toxic that is with us for many decades and it's still there, probably still killing termites."

Graham says as runoff and erosion occur, some of the chlordane used decades ago "sticks to the soil and ends up in the Anacostia in the sediment."

It can stay in soil for more than 20 years and does not dissolve in water. Instead, it builds up in the tissues of fish, birds and mammals, the registry says. Back in 1989, D.C. issued its first fish consumption advisory because of chlordane and PCB contamination.

In the short-term, chlordane can affect a person's central nervous system. While not listed as a carcinogen, the EPA says chlordane can damage your liver, kidneys, heart, lungs, spleen and adrenal glands. PCBs do cause cancer.

In the 2004 study, clams in the Riverdale East Branch near the mouth of the Northwest Branch had high levels of chlordane. The report says the small Riverdale East Branch appears to be a major pesticide source, although there is no industrial park area nearby.

At all of its test sites, except one, the clam study found PCB levels exceeding those allowed by the Food and Drug Administration. The study suggested that future investigations of PCBs should start in Lower Beaverdam Creek, which has the highest concentration of industrial parks in Prince George's County.

One of the locations contributing to the Anacostia's PCB problem has since been cleaned up. In D.C. the Navy Yard along the Anacostia served as a heavy industrial site from the 1800s until the early 1960s. Because of PCBs, dioxins and lead at the site, the EPA put the Navy Yard on its list of Superfund sites in the 1990s. The site underwent an accelerated cleanup as part of lawsuit settlement in 1998.

(Copyright 2005 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

 

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