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Meetings to Discuss Fish Advisory in St. Clair Shores

June 15, 2011

The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) is holding a public availability session, followed by a public information meeting, Wednesday about the "do not eat" advisory for all fish in the 10 Mile/Lange/Revere canals.

 

The meeting will also be taped and rebroadcast at a later date. The public availability session will be an open house starting at 6 p.m., in the Geer Conference Room at City Hall on 27600 Jefferson Circle Drive, St. Clair Shores. Representatives from federal, state, and local agencies involved in the Ten Mile Drain Superfund investigation will be present to speak one-on-one with community members. The public information meeting will start at 7 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall and will be aired live on the city's public access station, SCSTV (Comcast channel 5, Wide Open West channel 10, AT&T channel 99).

 

The advisory also includes a "do not eat" advisory for carp and channel catfish from Lake St. Clair. The MDCH and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) will present information on the Lange/Revere fish sampling results and the fish advisory that has been issued for the canals. On May 26, MDCH issued a "do not eat" advisory for all fish in the 10 Mile/Lange/Revere canal, based on PCB analysis of tissue from fish sampled from the canals.

 

The presentations will include information about current public health actions and future fish sampling plans. There will be a question-and-answer session following the presentations. Other agencies will be present to answer questions specific to their role in the Ten Mile Drain Superfund investigation.

 

The Ten Mile Drain discharges to the Lange/Revere canals. In 2001, PCBs were discovered in the sediments in the canals and the drain system. The EPA conducted an emergency clean up in 2002, removing the contamination from the canals and drain. However, follow-up monitoring indicated continuing contamination. The drain was named a Superfund National Priorities Site in 2010. The EPA has taken a number of interim steps to control the PCB contamination and is conducting a comprehensive environmental investigation of the site.

 

PCBs are a group of toxic chemicals that were once widely used as industrial coolants, insulators and lubricants. PCBs are of concern because they concentrate in the environment and the food chain resulting in health hazards to humans, fish and wildlife. Because of these dangers, the United States banned the manufacture of new PCBs in 1976 and PCBs still in use are strictly regulated.