PLEASE PASS THE PROZAC, LOTS OF IT

Yesterday evening G and I went to the Sussex County Democratic Jamboree at Cape Henlopen State Park.  As usual, it was a nearly lily-white event, with a couple of African American attendees, no Hispanics at all, one Asian family.  This in no way reflects the actual make-up of Sussex County, let alone the Democratic party in Sussex County. The Jamboree is a gathering of the good ol' white folks who are running the policitical districts, running for office, holding office, etc, in this county and this state.  Yes, it was a high, and yes, I now feel like part of this establishment to whatever small degree - for the first time I knew many, if not most, of the people there, got lots of handshakes, hugs, smiles, friendly hellos - but I don't feel good about the exclusivity and in-crowdness going on here. 

In this morning's Wilmington News Journal were two very important articles.  One has already made the forwarding rounds of all the Democrats (I've already gotten it three times from three different sources).  It's about how the Republicans want to win Delaware back this year, both nationally and locally.  We listened to Joe Biden and Tom Carper tell us that DE is safely in the Dems' column for Kerry last night - then woke up to read how the Republicans have no intention of letting it stay that way and are spending millions of advertising dollars to change it.  It's only the undecided and unregistered potential voters who will keep DE a blue state.  And most of those voters are, who?  African Americans and Hispanics, new citizens, people who need us to reach out and include them, make them feel there's a home for them in the Democratic party.  T

Two years ago (the last major election) the Republicans held a big picnic  (the Jamboree is essentially a picnic) here in my town  (which is over 50% Hispanic) in a public park - no entry fee, no charge for food, bands from Guatemala and Mexico providing the music, free yard signs - and blanketed the town with notices about the event in both English and Spanish.  Yesterday's Jamboree was held in a state park (entrance fee), there was a $10.00 charge for admittance to the event itself, the band was young white boys, there was no publicity about it AT ALL (it's kind of a word of mouth thing, you know somebody who knows somebody who's selling tickets, etc.).  Why would I be surprised at the paucity of minority groups attending?

The other article was about the advisories against eating fish caught in any bodies of water in this state.  Although this is also true for most of the bodies of water in most other states in this union.  I'm going to try to copy the article into this entry, but it may turn out to be too long.  If so, I'll just give the link.  The accompanying chart will make your blood run cold.  The article mentions the fact that many people are not heeding the "catch and throw back" warnings about fish - and I know who those people are.  They are African Americans, Haitians, Hispanics, Asians.  They are my students - we have talked about this.  They regard the fish they catch every weekend as a major source of food.  Free food.  Food that will give them and their families cancer down the line, sure as the day is long.  This chart, by the way, doesn't even include the streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes of my county.  Not because they're all clean - the most fished river here is the Indian River, which features a coal-fired power plant on its banks.  The waters here are just as polluted as those of the northern counties.  It's just not as important to the Wilmington News Journal, somehow.

Throw back fish caught in state waters
Pollution causes restrictions on consumption

By JAMES MERRIWEATHER
The News Journal
08/29/2004

Making his first fishing trip to Dover's Silver Lake, Grady Harrell of Dover was spin-casting a pink plastic lure from the walkway over the dam, the point where the lake gives way to the St. Jones River.

He wasn't having any luck, and, abiding by warnings from previous visits, he was in strict catch-and-release mode.

"I heard a couple of people saying all you can do is come out here and have fun because you can't eat the fish," said Harrell, 21, who was accompanied by his 4-year-old daughter, LaDjeaha.

"I saw this one guy out here, and he said he eats them anyway. Me? I'm going to throw mine back."

That's probably the right choice.

State regulators say the fish pulled from Silver Lake - and the St. Jones River - are not fit to eat. The 167-acre lake, which drains about 20,000 acres of urban and rural land, is one of 21 bodies of Delaware water covered by fish consumption advisories.

Nationwide, the Environmental Protection Agency reported last week, some 3,094 lakes, rivers and streams in 48 states carry similar advisories - up about 10 percent from the 2,814 reported two years earlier, with the increase attributed largely to stepped-up monitoring.

Because of polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, dioxin and mercury contamination, the recommendation from the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control is that fishermen eat no more than two eight-ounce servings of Silver Lake fish over a year's time.

Other advisories are even more stringent. For instance, "no consumption" recommendations are in place for the Delaware River from the Pennsylvania state line to the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, and for the Brandywine River from Baynard Boulevard in Wilmington to the Pennsylvania border.

But state officials said they think not everyone is as cautious as Grady Harrell.

The evidence is mostly anecdotal, but officials suspect that big helpings of fish pulled from the tainted waters end up in frying pans all around the state. Over the long term, that may expose the diners to cancer or other maladies from the chemicals that nestle into the fatty tissue of all forms of finfish.

"I strongly suspect there are lots of people that just ignore the advisories, but we're making a study of it so we have better info," said Roy Miller, state fisheries administrator.

"That will give us guidance as to whether we're getting the message out and whether people are heeding the message. If we find that most people have not heard about them, we have to do a better job of getting the word out."

Guides on fish provided

Craig Shirey, fisheries program manager, said the advisories, which date back to at least 1986, are listed in DNREC fishing guides, which are issued annually. Notices of new or revised advisories are published in newspapers, he said. Some local fishermen said they are aware of the warnings.

Thomas B. Taylor of New Castle said he makes the 40-minute trip to Dover's Silver Lake because "there's a lot of big fish in here." He said he was aware of the consumption advisories and, like Harrell, had no designs on keeping anything that he might have caught.

"I don't eat it," he said, loading his eight-foot boat onto his GMC pickup for the ride home. "I just throw it back."

Sean Foley, manager of Captain Bones Bait, Tackle and Hunting in Odessa, said that, as far as he knows, nobody eats bass, shad or any other fish that comes from fresh water.

"They're eating saltwater fish," he said. "I don't know of anybody who eats freshwater fish. My customers are sport fisherman who catch them and release them."

The warnings result from years of pollution of rivers industry and sewage plants. Rural lakes and rivers often are tainted runoff. The EPA reported that all states but Alaska and Wyoming have fish advisories in place for one or more bodies of water.

Mercury is the leading culprit nationwide, but PCBs are far the leading pollutants in Delaware waters. Production of the synthetic organic chemicals, once treasured as fire-resistant insulating compounds, was banned in 1977 after studies turned up evidence that they cause cancer.

Plan to clean up water

A mitigation plan has been adopted Delaware and federal regulators, and Delaware's environmental control chief, John A. Hughes, said the goal is to clean up the state's waters to the point that fish consumption advisories will not be necessary. The advisories cover 17 bodies of water in New Castle County, four in Kent and none in Sussex.

Jed Brown is project leader for the Delaware River Coordinator, a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service office that works with Delaware, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to clean up the Delaware River. He said much of the pollution that once all but choked out striped bass, shad and Atlantic sturgeon has been cleaned up over the last 30 years or so.

Miller, the state fisheries administrator, said the advisories reflect 1-in-1,000 to 1-in-100,000 chances that cancer would result solely from consumption of tainted fish. In all cases, he said, it's recommended that pregnant women, women of child-bearing age and young children eat no fish from any water carrying an advisory.

"It depends on risk tolerance," he said. "We're saying that if you eat fish the rest of your life, these are the odds of developing some kind of health impairment. It depends on how you view the risk."

Each year, the National Marine Fisheries Service, a federal agency, conducts a survey of marine recreational fisheries, which is intended to measure the economic and biological impact of 15 to 17 million recreational fishermen in Delaware and other coastal states. This year, Miller said, Delaware threw in more money to include questions intended to show whether its advisories are sufficiently visible and how many fishermen might be eating their catches from tainted waters.

"No results yet, but the questions are being asked," he said. "We suspect that there are people who are ignoring them, and in no cases do we have any information that a few meals are going to hurt anyone. It's the lifetime consumption rate, the longer-term exposure, that we're concerned about."

Contact James Merriweather at 678-4273 or jmerriweather@delawareonline.com.

DELAWARE FISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORIES

The pollutant listed first is of greatest concern

BECKS POND

All finfish

Entire pond

PCBs, mercury

One 8-ounce meal per year

DELAWARE RIVER

All finfish

Del State Line to C&D Canal

PCBs, Dioxin, other

No consumption

SHELLPOT CREEK

All finfish

Philadelphia Pike to Del. River

PCBs

No consumption

RED LION CREEK

All finfish

U.S. 13 to Del. River

PCBs, Dioxin

Three 8-ounce meals per year

LOWER DEL. RIVER & DEL. BAY

Finfish*

C&D Canal to Del. Bay mouth

PCBs, mercury, Dieldrin

One 8-ounce meal per year.**

TIDAL BRANDYWINE RIVER

All finfish

River mouth to Baynard Blvd.

PCBs

No consumption

NONTIDAL BRANDYWINE

All finfish

Baynard Blvd. to Pa. line

PCBs, Dioxin

Two 8-ounce meals per year

TIDAL CHRISTINA RIVER

All finfish

River mouth to Smalley's Dam

PCBs, Dieldrin

No consumption

NONTIDAL CHRISTINA RIVER

All finfish

Smalley's Dam to I-95

PCBs

Six 8-ounce meals per year

LITTLE MILL CREEK

All finfish

Mouth to Kirkwood Highway

PCBs

No consumption

TIDAL WHITE CLAY CREEK

All finfish

River mouth to Del. 4

PCBs

No consumption

NONTIDAL WHITE CLAY CREEK

All finfish

Del. 4 to Paper Mill Road

PCBs

One 8-ounce meal per month

RED CLAY CREEK

All finfish

State line to Stanton

PCBs, Dioxin, pesticides

Two 8-ounce meals per year

C&D CANAL

All finfish

Entire canal in Delaware

PCBs

No consumption

APPOQUINIMINK RIVER

All finfish

Tidal portions

PCBs, Dioxin

One 8-ounce meal per year

DRAWYERS CREEK

All finfish

Tidal portions

PCBs, DDT

One 8-ounce meal per year

SILVER LAKE, MIDDLETOWN

All finfish

Entire lake

PCBs, Dieldrin, DDT, other

One 8-ounce meal per year

ST. JONES RIVER

All finfish

Mouth to Silver Lake dam

PCBs, Dioxin, mercury

Two 8-ounce meals per year

MOORES LAKE

All finfish

Entire pond

PCBs, DDT

Two 8-ounce meals per year

SILVER LAKE, DOVER

All finfish

Entire pond

PCBs, Dioxin, mercury

Two 8-ounce meals per year

WYOMING MILL POND

All finfish

Entire pond

PCBs, Dioxin, DDT

Two 8-ounce meals per year

* Striped bass, channel catfish, white catfish, American eel, white perch, bluefish

** Do not eat bluefish larger than 24 inches