Final Report to Michigan Sea Grant Submitted By
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Final Report to Michigan Sea Grant Submitted by: Kashian, D. R., 1 K. Drouillard 2, D. Haffner2, A. Krause3, Z. Liu3, and L. Sano4 What are the Causes, Consequences and Correctives of fish contamination in the Detroit River AOC that cause health consumption advisories? 1Department of Biological Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA 2Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER), University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada 3Environmental Sciences, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA 4Cooperative Institute of Limnology and Ecosystem Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………….......1 Chapter 2: Development, Implementation, and Assessment of Stakeholder Workshop Series...15 Appendix 2.0: Informant interview guide……………………………………………….57 Appendix 2.1: Stakeholder survey…………………………………………………...….60 Appendix 2.2: Pre-workshop survey………………………………………….……...….74 Appendix 2.3: Workshop evaluation and feedback…………………………..……..…..83 Appendix 2.4: Post-workshop survey………………………………………………..….85 Appendix 2.5: Tri-fold flier: Eat safe fish in the Detroit River……………………...….94 Appendix 2.6: Distribution flier: Best spots to catch catfish in the Detroit River ….….95 Appendix 2.7: Signs: Eating fish from the Detroit River……………………………….97 Chapter 3: Fish consumption advisories: A review of state-level approaches….………….....…98 Chapter 4: Assessing uncertainty in fish consumption advisory data for the Detroit………….114 River: Application of a probabilistic approach Chapter 5: Detroit River Fish Consumption Hazard Assessment Model: A probabilistic bioaccumulation model to predict PCB exposures in sport fish to apply hazard and risk assessments for fish consumption advisories in the Detroit River………….…........……..127 Chapter 6: Spatial modification of modelling PCB transfer in the food web of the Detroit River……………………………….……...………………………………………….……210 Appendix A: Bibliography………………………………………..………………………...….229 Appendix B: Project Fact Sheet…………………………………………….…………………250 Appendix C: Environmental Justice Fact Sheet………………………………………….….…252 Appendix D: Environmental Justice and Fish Consumption Advisories on the Detroit River Area of Concern (Kalkirtz et al. 2008)………………………253 ii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND The consumption of fish is often touted for its health benefits, as fish can be a high quality source of protein and can provide an important source of omega-3 fatty acids, both of which support cardiovascular health and brain development. Fish consumption, however, is not without risks, as persistent environmental contaminants such as mercury, dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyls, and others are often found in fish at levels that may pose human health risks. An important source of consumable fish in the U.S. is that caught by sport fishers, both for recreational and subsistence purposes. In many states, several of these recreational fish species are under fish consumption advisories, which are designed to reduce human health risks associated with eating contaminated fish by providing specific guidelines on the amount and type of certain fish that should be consumed by different sub-groups of people. In the U.S., the number of state fish advisories due to contaminants has more than doubled over the last 15 years and in 2006 the National Listing of Fish Advisories reported that approximately 65% of the U.S. coastline (except Alaska) is under some sort of consumption advisory. The Detroit River remains under several fish consumption advisories, which are beneficial use impairments that both impact human health and affect economic revenue. In terms of the former, there are consumption restrictions for various fish species that apply to sensitive sub- groups, such as children and women of childbearing age. In terms of the latter, consumption advisories on highly prized fish species such as walleye and yellow perch likely impact economic revenue of the region (Johnson 2000). The most commonly cited contaminants in Detroit River fish are mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxin. Polychlorinated biphenyls contribute or are solely responsible for advisories on all of the fish listed in the Michigan and Ontario advisories for the Detroit River. Polychlorinated biphenyls are among the most widespread environmental pollutants and a prominent contaminant of the Great Lakes basin, they bioaccumulate in fish tissues and in fish- eating humans due to their resistance to biodegradation and lipophilic properties. PCBs are also known to cross the placenta and to be excreted into the mother's milk, thus predisposing the infant to potentially adverse health effects. Despite the critical importance of these advisories, little progress has been made in developing effective management strategies. For example, although sediment remediation efforts in the Detroit River have totaled more than $120 million dollars, there is little evidence of ecosystem improvement (Heidtke et al. 2003). Many uncertainties also remain regarding the primary drivers of these advisories, with key uncertainties including the relative contribution of sediment hot spots, the role of point versus non-point contaminant sources, and the appropriateness of tissue trigger-levels in identifying threshold action levels for consumption advisories. Because of these complexities, solutions for remedying consumption advisories will require novel approaches directed at both decreasing body burden levels in fish over the long-term and reducing human health risks in the short- and long-term. 1 Using an Integrated Assessment (IA) framework, we consolidated and utilized existing data from the Detroit River to develop models that both identify possible drivers of elevated fish contaminant body burdens, and to facilitate a more risk-based approach of tissue trigger-levels for consumption advisories. This integrated assessment approach was particularly useful for consumption advisories as it provided the ability to integrate and organize complex data in a manner that can help inform management decisions. In addition, the IA framework explicitly fosters collaboration and participation of multiple interested groups. We have capitalized on this component of IAs, by seeking the active participation of different stakeholder groups in developing logic models that identify the goals of the scientific assessment and the connections between the science and management or policy outcomes. This science-policy connection was the focus of workshops designed to evaluate frameworks identifying the goals and desired outcomes from the scientific assessment component of the IA. We approached this IA with the following objectives: 1) Synthesize and summarize the status and trends of fish contaminant levels and advisories in the Detroit River, through an assessment of the trends in the data as well as documentation of the history of the fish advisory in the river (Canadian and U.S.). 2) Describe the abiotic, biotic, and human health causes and consequences of fish consumption advisories, with an emphasis on model simulation and explanatory analyses. This effort will focus on the environmental conditions that contribute to fish consumption advisories in addition to other factors that may exacerbate human health risks. 3) Identify the key uncertainties regarding the drivers of consumption advisories for use in prioritizing future research and monitoring efforts and in helping guide management and policy directives. 4) Utilize information on the causes and consequences of consumption advisories for providing technical guidance in implementing policy and management options. This will include a focus on short-term measures that reduce direct threats to human health and longer-term objectives to reduce overall body burden of fish in the Detroit River relative to reference areas. THE DETROIT RIVER FISH CONSUMPTION ADVIORY (FCA) IA PROCESS: OVERVIEW: The FCA-IA process was initiated in 2007 when the project PIs met for a planning meeting and began the process of: identifying relevant stakeholders (Chapter 2); identifying mechanisms to collect and coordinate data for the Detroit River; developing a web-page (http://www.ciler.snre.umich.edu/fca/); recruiting graduate students; coordinating data analysis; developing a survey to assess connectivity among the stakeholders (Appendix 2.1), and planning the first stakeholder workshop (Chapter 2). At this time we also identified the need to bring in an additional consultant Dr. Branda Nowell with North Carolina State University (NCSU) a community psychologist whose expertise is in examining the social networks of non-profit organizations. Following this meeting two MS graduate students were recruited to work on a Fish Consumption Hazard Assessment Model (Chapter 5) and a spatial modification of modeling PCB transfer in the food web of Detroit River (Chapter 6). In addition, a graduate student team 2 was recruited through the University of Michigan to address Environmental Justice Issues Related to Fish Consumption Advisories on the Detroit River (Appendix D). Through this process we were responsive to the requested needs of the stakeholders and developed a user friendly website where we made available to them the products of this IA. Including a bibliography that that we developed in response to a request regarding the challenges by non- academic institutions to find relevant articles on this topic (Appendix A). Our bibliography provides approximately 200 articles organized into articles