Lake Granby: CPDHE issues fish consumption advisory
March 24, 2009
Add Lake Granby Lake Trout to your list of limited consumption fish. Here’s a report from Tonya Bina writing for the Sky-Hi Daily News:
Out of 33 lakes tested in 2008, Granby resulted in one of five where at least one fish met or exceeded the mercury action level of 0.5 parts per million set by the state health department. The Colorado standard is more stringent than the federal standard at 0.3 parts per million in fish tissue. The Lake Granby advisory targets large-sized lake trout. It recommends that children aged 6 years or younger not consume any lake trout greater than 30 inches. Pregnant women, nursing women and women who plan on being pregnant should limit themselves to one meal per month of lake trout larger than 30 inches. The same is recommended for the general public. A meal is considered to be 8 ounces for adults. “The higher up in the food chain, the more the organism may bio-accumulate the levels of mercury, but it might not be in all fish,” said Randy Hampton of the Colorado Division of Wildlife…
The fish tissue testing is part of an ongoing five-year sampling of about 120 water bodies in Colorado. Since 2004, more than 112 water bodies have had laboratory testing completed. Of those, about one in five have required fish consumption advisories for mercury. Also listed are two water bodies not part of the mercury study, but were posted for other parameters: Sweitzer Lake for selenium, and Willow Springs Ponds for perchloroethylene. Fish consumption advisories for various Colorado lakes can be found on the state’s Web site at www.cdphe.state.co.us/wq/fishcon/index.html.
