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EPA to Study Fish in San Jose Lagoon

Release Date: 04/04/2000
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(00050) San Juan, Puerto Rico -- EPA began a study of fish and crabs from the San Jose Lagoon to assess health risks to the people who eat them, Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Regional Administrator announced today. Ms. Fox today visited the lagoon and looked on as an EPA scientist collected blue crabs and three fish species - snook (robalo), yellow mojarra, and striped mojarra - to analyze their tissue for heavy metals, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In addition, the agency will test blue crabs (cocolia) for dioxins and furans. The $115,00 study is part of a comprehensive effort to preserve and restore the San Juan Bay Estuary, which is threatened by sewage discharges, nutrient and toxic contamination, the presence of aquatic debris, and habitat loss and degradation. The Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER), the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board (EQB), the San Juan Bay Estuary Program, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Marine Fisheries Service are assisting EPA in this effort. "We know that people fish in the lagoon, and we are concerned that they are putting themselves at risk by eating contaminated fish and crabs," Ms. Fox said. "While we work together to clean up the San Jose Lagoon and the entire San Juan Bay Estuary, we must better understand the risks that are posed right now, especially to children and pregnant women, by consuming fish and crabs from this lagoon." The San Jose Lagoon is located within the municipalities of San Juan and Carolina. It is one of the largest water bodies in the San Juan Bay Estuary System. A recent study, funded in part by a grant from EPA through the San Juan Bay Estuary Program and conducted by the University of Puerto Rico, indicated that fish in the lagoon may be contaminated with heavy metals including mercury and lead. The area has been posted by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources and the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board with signs warning that consuming fish from the area may pose a health threat. EPA's assessment will expand on that study by providing information about other contaminants. In addition, the data will be used to perform a risk assessment for consumption of fish and blue crabs by children, pregnant women, fetuses and adults. Samples will be collected in April of this year, and will be analyzed by EPA. The Agency will share the data with other Federal and the Government of Puerto Rico agencies, including the Puerto Rico Department of Health, DNER, EQB, the participants of the San Juan Bay Estuary Program and the public. The results of the study will be available in early 2001. In the meantime, EPA recommends that, as suggested by DNER and EQB, people, especially children and pregnant women, refrain from eating fish and crabs caught at this lagoon. Mercury and lead are neurotoxins, which can cause learning or motor skill problems. Lead is particularly toxic to children and fetuses. The other contaminants that EPA will test for, pesticides, PCBs, PAHs, dioxins and furans, and other heavy metals are believed to cause cancer or may be toxic to the nervous and immune systems, or pose other serious health risks.