Fish being tested for cancer-causing toxin in Georgia river

By Andy Pierrotti

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    Savannah, Georgia (WANF) — This summer, Damon Mullis plans to cruise up and down the Ogeechee River on his 10-foot aluminum Jon boat in search of fish deep below. The plan isn’t to eat the fish, but to test them for a cancer-causing toxin called Perfluoroalkyl, or PFAS for short, used by manufacturers for decades to make products water and oil resistant, like non-stick cook wear, stain-resistant carpet and food packages.

The bigger the fish, the better for testing. “The longer an animal has lived, and the higher up in the food chain, generally the more contaminated they are going to be with PFAS,” said Mullis, executive director of the Ogeechee Riverkeeper, an environmental watchdog group.

Last year, a study by the Waterkeeper Alliance discovered elevated levels of the chemical in the Ogeechee River, which flows 245 miles from the Piedmont region of the state, through Savannah and to the coast. The river has been plagued with contamination for years. In 2011, more than 30,000 fish died from contamination linked to a now-closed textile plant accused of discharging contaminated water upstream, one of the largest fish kills in the state’s history.

When the Ogeechee Riverkeeper discovered the plant discharging PFAS chemicals into the river more than three years ago, its renewal permit requested lower standards for the toxin. The Ogeechee Riverkeeper fought against it, seeking PFAS limits and more monitoring. A few months later, the company announced it was removing PFAS from all of its products.

But Mullis said the damage was done, and even people who don’t eat freshwater fish should be concerned. “We put these chemicals out in the environment, not really understanding their impacts on on the ecology of our systems, but also their impact on human health,” Mullis said. “And then once they’re out there, they make their ways in our body, whether we eat fish or not.”

The Waterkeeper Alliance’s survey discovered PFAS chemicals in 10 other Georgia waterways. “When we began testing waterways for PFAS earlier this year, we knew that our country had a significant PFAS problem, but these findings confirm that was an understatement,” said Marc Yaggi, the organization’s CEO in a statement posted on its website. “This is a widespread public health and environmental crisis that must be addressed immediately by Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.”

To measure the impact on the Ogeechee River, Mullis partnered with Georgia Southern University this year to test fish for PFAS. The university purchased its testing equipment, called a mass spectrometer, thanks to a federal grant it obtained from the National Science Foundation.

In May, Mullis took Atlanta News First Investigates on the water to catch Redbreast sunfish, one of the most abundant and eaten fish on the river. Each one caught is measured, its GPS location recorded, put on ice, and eventually sent to GSU’s lab.

The likehood the river’s fish will test positive for some PFAS chemicals is high. A study released by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) earlier this year discovered elevated levels of the chemical in freshwater fish from coast to coast. The samples, collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), discovered PFAS in freshwater fish 280 times higher than commercially raised fish.

EWG’s study estimates eating just one freshwater fish a year could be equal to drinking a month’s worth of water laced with the forever chemical.

“This is a significant problem and this is one that we think should be addressed at both the local and federal level in terms of holding polluters accountable and potentially providing guidance to anglers or communities who are relying on these fish,” said David Andrews, the EWG researcher who led the study.

Damon agrees more testing and regulation needs to be done, but right now the EPA and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), the state’s regulatory body, are largely focused on only testing and removing PFAS in drinking water, not lakes and streams.

Some states have set PFAS limits related to fish consumption, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Massachusetts. Some posted warning signs to notify anglers that fish have previously tested positive for high concentrations of PFAS.

Georgia is not one of them. EPD says the states that took action had much higher levels of the toxin than Georgia. The agency also says it has decided to wait until the EPA releases its PFAS limits and testing guidelines. While that could be by the end of this year, there is no set deadline. The EPA has a long history of delaying action related to PFAS regulation.

“I would love to see a little more urgency from the federal government and the state government. And that’s one reason we’re doing this project,” Mullis. “What’s happening here is happening all throughout the country. Not doing anything, ignoring it, is not going to help.”

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