Document byEm0X61LjoY3rb1JEYV1vq43

1 Of PCB ppms from GE and a SNAFU from EPA and DEC iclturd and lua Ferris first heard Ihe Rnews on the radio when they were g.ctticip up on August 8ils The Ferrises run the Croton Bait and Tackle Shop in C roion on-)tudson. New York, and as Ballard say'. "1 he news wum big shock Hie first thing that hit me was what n would do uiour business Bui then I gave it some thought-1 had believed the Hudson was connug along clcaner-and it nisi seemed as though someone had busied the balloon for everybody !< was heartbreaking having to bell the people who tame in " 1 he hrarlhreak along the Hudson w as i .tuved by an announcement from Ogden It Retd, commissioner of ihc New York Department of Environmental Conver sation Reid was quoted by Ru'haid Severn in The New York 7rniej. warning the public not to eat striped bass from the river or salmon front Lake Ontario Prompted by a report received from the U S Lnsironmental Protection Agency, Reid said that the striped bass had more than 5 parts per million of PCB* in their flesh.the federal Food and Drug Admin istration tolerance limit for fish. PCIK or polychlorinated biphenyls, arc heat-resistant compounds widely used by industries throughout the world 1 hey arc tough chemical cousins of DD1, and they arc toxic to a wide range of life, including humans, where they have caused stillbirths in women. Pish apparently ingest and store PCBs by taking in conuminated bottom sedi ments eatmg lesser organisms, or simply bs swimming through water containing PCIis Some indication' of the threat l'CBs pose may be had from an answer given by Dr James H Wright, a chemical engineer with Westmghouse Electric C orpnratton, who testified at an En vironmental Protection Agency hearing on proposed mxic polluiani effluent 1 standards in May 1974 Asked by EPA ir HONS 202452 attorney Al.in Lckcri, "When you look ihs-sc steps io prevent (he discharge of PCBs, did you attempt 10 flush ou: or clean sewers and drums contaminated with PCBs from old operations'*" Wrighi replied, "1 would he die most frightened nun in the world to recommend the flushing out of old lines and old drains " Until Reid's announcement, n was generally assumed that PCBs escaped into the biosphere by chance and not deliberate release To Reid's dismay, he learned ilia! two General Elecme Com pany plants at I ort Ldward and Hudson halls on the upper Hudson, winch manufucturc capacitors, had been releasing, by the company's calculations, the in credible amount of 30 pounds of PCBs per day into the river Company sam pling records revealed the plants may have dumped 90 pounds of I'CBs in a single day The discharge from the Fort I dwarsl plant began in 1942 and from Hudson Palls in 1951 Retd was further dismayed n> learn that his very own department had known of the PCB conlaiiiinjiton for sescral years bui had said nolhing to lhe public Ever since 1965, when New York voters oserwhclmtngly approved an un precedented SI billion "pure waters'* bond issue, state officials have been blowing trumpets about progress against pollution But not a word was said about PCBs Accordmgto GE records, the New York Department of Health gave the two plants a ssaler quality certification in 1971, and in 1973 the chief of ihe en forcement section of the Division of Pure Waters in the Department of Environ mental Conservation did the same Bureaucrats in the Environmental Prutcuion Agency have not exactly cov ered themselves with glory, either For more than a year. EPA scientists and bureaucrats had known that General Electric was polluting the Hudson with PCBs, but EPA policy-makers stalled until they finally passed the buck to Reid. A few persons tried to take effective action but they were thwarted. In a memo dated May 31, I974,Sandra P Kunsberg, an attorney in the Water Enforcement Branch of the EPA Region II office in Those ubiquitous PCBs The range of PCB uses is so broad that sulattng tapes, in protection lacquers, in hurdlv anyone can escape some con making plasuc bottles, and tn epoxy tact with them. As Karl E Bremer of the resins for protective coating of metals Environmental Protection Agency Ke- Asa widely used additive insealanks- vion V office in Chicago listed them last for caulking compounds and putty, for July for the Lake Michigan Tome Sub concrete and asphalt, as well as in fire stances Committee, the uscs-past and proofing sealants for floors, doors, ceil presem-of polychlorinated biphenyls ings. and partitions include . In the printing industry, in the making in transformers and power capacitors, of "carbonless" carbon papers, as a coat as hydraulic fluids, as a diffusion pump ing for papers used in thermographic nil, in heat transfer applications; as plas- duplicating machines, as an additive in ucizcrs, as adhesives in the manufacture xerographic transfer process (in Xerox of brake linings, clutch faces, and grind toner): and as a plasticizer for printing ing w heels, in making safety and acous plates and flexographic plates tical glass, and as a laminate of ceramics PCBs also are a byproduct of paper and ntcials recycling, and have been identified in In making washable wall coverings hardwood and softwood pulps They are and upholstering materials, in adhesives found in toilet soaps, barrier creams, in for envelopes and tapes, in coatings for hydrated lime used to manufacture glass, mining board covers, as a dclusicnng in water treatment chemicals, m primer jgeni lor rayons, as a flame-prooTer for painls, coloring compounds, degreasers, synthcnc yams, in waterproofing of in additives to zinc alloys, and in waxes canvas, as additives in paints and var used in the tool and die-casting process nishes, in film casting solutions, in in- -ROBERT K BOYLE New Vork City wrote le Dr RnhjiJ Spears chief of the Surs cillanse and Analysis Division "Following the |toxiC pollulam cf fluent standards] hearings {at which CE ad nulled dumping PCHs] in a memo randum from Alan Eskert to Meyer Scolmck, the Office of Lnforssmem jnd General Counsel tn New York recom mended that this office undertake a care ful investigation of PCB discharges from the Fun Edward and Hudson Falls facil ities to determine whether nr not there exists a health hazard wnhin i he mean,ng of Section 504 of the FWPC A [Federal Water Pollution Control Acij " This provision authorizes the El'A administrator to sue to restrain persons whose pollution of waters causes "sub stantial endangermeni to the health of persons or to the welfare of persons, where such endangermeni is to the liveli hood of such persons " The recommended investigation was Conducted in August 1974 b) Dr Royal J Nadeau and Robert P Davis of the Region II EPA laboratory, and they reported, based on GE figures, iliai the Hudson Falls plant was discharging up to 17 6 pounds of PCBs per day and the 1 on Edward plant up to 30 pounds per day Minnows collected below the GE dis charges averaged 78 pans per million of PCBs, while a rock bass contained 350 ppm of PCBs, prompting Nadeau and Davis to write "The PCB level in the rock bass is greater lhan the maximum level docu mented for fish taken from anv industrial river of the United Stales '[ his repre sents a new record for PCB contamina tion of freshwater fish " They also noted that "certain areas, particularly down stream from Station 4, arc fished pri marily by the youngsters of I on Edward Ingestion of these fish by the populace would certainly lead io urnuminaiiun of specific tissues in their bodies js docu mented by previous investigators men tioned in the introductory section of this report " Effective action was neit (orlhsoming Instead, last March the EPA Region 11 office slayed lemcnl ahaiemeni plans for the two plants after General Ekunc objected and demanded an jdiudisatorv hearing to challenge PCB limitations OnJuly7ihofthisycar Dr Gilman I) Veith of ERA'S National \kaicr Quality Laboratory in Duluth, Minnesota, wrote a ''review'' of ihe Nadeau-Das is inves- HONS 202453 i:h ligation which was passed on to LPA in 1 New York City and eventually to Reid "1 Ins field investigation has revealed the largest source of PCBs into ihe aquatic environment that I know of," Vcnh wrote "It is my opinion that ihis report li.is been written in a conservative man ner and does not by itself adequately describe the significance of the General hlcctnc discharge into the Hudson River The river for many miles downstream from the General Electric discharge could be contaminated with PCBs at levels one hundred times over the 10 ppt |parts per trillion) guideline set forth by IT'Ain 1972 anda thousand times higher than the recommended water quality criteria" of I part per trillion. Even after Reid made public his warn ing. Environmental Protection Agency bureaucrats in New York City were less than helpful When John Hnrris-Cromn of the Hudson River Sloop Restoration Iiic requested in person a copy of the N.ideau-Davis investigation, Richard Dye, regional chief of the Water En forcement Branch of EPA, told Harrts- Crontn he would have to submit hts request in writing Aware of EPA run around techniques, Harrts-Cronin had brought MaiM>ncry, and he immediately wrote out the request. 1 lye looked at the letter and then told Hams-Cromn that under the Freedom of Information Act Protection Agency ") "w'c have ten days to deetde whether or Monsanto makes Aroclor 1016, 1221, not to honor your request, and the lactic 1232, 1242, 1248, 1254, 1260, 1262, and we're going to employ with you is to use 1268 The last two digits indteate the them all." Given such tactics, it is no percentage of chlorine tn the different wonder that in the Hudson Valley the compounds, except for Aroclor 1016, joke is that EPA really stands for which actually contains 41 percent chlo "Everyone's Polluting Again " , rine PCBs also have been manufactured tn Great Britain, France, Spain, Ger ols chlorinated biphenyls base been many, Italy, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Pmanufactured in the United States Union, and Japan Like DDT, PCBs arc hy one firm, Monsanto Industrial Chemchlorinated hydrocarbons Unlike DDT, icals Company of St. Louis. The com which degrades in fifteen years PCBs, pany began production in 1929, and especially the more highly chlorinated although it has played cozy with its list of formulations, are essentially unalterable customers and production figures, esti- , by microbial or physical chemical reac mates are that Monsanto produced tion PCBs persist because enzymes are 400,000 tons of PCBs between 1948 and unable to shear Ihe bonding between the 1973 It isnot unusual toshtpPCBs by rail chlorine atom and the biphenyl structure hy the tank-earful Monsanto sells PCBs The only efficient way to destroy PCBs is under ihe name of Aroclor (In a bizarre to burn them in a special industrial touch, government scientific publications incinerator generating a temperature of dealing with the toxicity of PCBs begin 2,400dcgrces Fahrenheit Although PCBs with t he footnote "Aroclor is a registered have been tn use for almost 50 years, they trademark, Monsanto Company, St baffled scientist measuring DDT resi Louis, Mo Mention of commercial products or trade names does not consti dues, who reported finding "unknown but chlorine-containing compounds " In tute endorsement by the Environmental 1966 Dr Sbren Jensen in Sweden iden tified the compounds as PCUs Unlike DDT, PCBs arc not used as insecticides buf have many industrial uses (sec accompanying story) And just recently fish cul has been identified as a source of PCBs It would be interesting to determine if menhaden is affected In a report submitted this past summer to the Rockefeller Foundation. Wtlltam L Dovel of the Boyce Thompson Institute in Ynnkers.New York, reported that "ihe Hudson estuarine system makes a major contribution to the menhaden industry of the Nonhcast Larval and juvenile stages develop in the Hudson and move toward the sea, where they represent the most valuable commercial fish species taken along the North Atlantic coast Menha den arc ground into protein meal and oil to form additives for poultry and cattle feed, margarine, paint, lubricants, resins, putty, caulking, linoleum, soap fertiliz ers, ink, electrical cables, and antibiotics The cost of poultry probably would be prohibitive were it not for Ihe rjptd growth attained by adding high-protein meal to chicken and turkey feed Fish meal is a richer source of protein than 129 HONS 202454 soybean meal, us most important com petitor ] icon tains amino acids not found in vegetable protein and a yet unknown grost th factor which makes its use in feed formulas particularly desirable " In 1971, by thettme PCBs were present in a wide variety of products, Monsanto announced il would restrict sales ro socalled '`dosed cycle" systems in trans formers and capacitors However, trans formers do leak Moreover. United Slates companies m nonelectrical manufactur ing have been importing PCBs from abroad Aside from deliberate release. PCBs get into the environment from the disposal of industrial and municipal wastes, burning of refuse, and teaching from dumps According to a 1973 paper by Dr George Harvey of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, "PCBs arc found universally in the sewage of major cities, although the atmosphere ts the major pathway of global transport Re cently, 50,000 turkeys tn Minnesota, 88.000 chickens in North Carolina, and many thousands of eggs from various localities were destroyed after they were found to contain very high concentra tions of PCBs .. PCBs have been found m alt organisms analyred from the North and South Atlantic oceans, even in an imals living under 11.000 feet ofwater , Based on available data it seems safe to assume that PCBs are present in varying concentrations in every species of wild life on Earth " Parts of the Great Lakes region have been sorely hit Starting in 1971, Michi gan health authorities, primarily con cerned about PCB levels, cautioned the public not to eat salmon or trout from Lake Michigan more than once a week The Great Lakes stales restricted the use of DO I in 1970, and since then DDT levels have dropped 87 percent in Lake Michigan fish By contrast, PCB levels have remained ominously high. On No vember 8, 1974, Martin J Schreibcr, lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, wrote about PCBs 10 A. Gene Gaziay, then director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources "There exists now a problem with contaminants in Lake Michigan (hat has ihc potential ofdestroying both sport and commercial fishing in all the Great Lakes. This situation could turn any efforts to develop the lake as a future protein source into a futile and frustrat ing endeavor "Evidence is accumulating that shows thai one gn up of chemical contami nants, polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, exist in dangerously high levels in Lake Michigan right now Because they are extremely fat soluble, and be cause they are extremely stable, they tend to bioaccumulalc in the food chain with more success than other pollutants In human beings, PCBs have caused skin disease, jaundice, and toxic damage to internal organs, especially the liver In test animals. PCBs have caused swelling of internal organs, internal bleeding, and drops in reproductive capacity." Schreiber went on to note that he had asked the Wisconsin Department of Nat ural Resources Board to intensify efforts on the PCB problem, and he ended by writing "Unilateral action by each state ts needed because sources tn the En vironmental Protection Agency feci that it will be three or four years before any federally imposed standards could go into effect Wisconsin and the other Lake Michigan stales cannot afford to wait that long " According to scientists at EPA's Na tional Water Quality Laboratory, all Lake Michigan trout and salmon greater than twelve inches in length exceed the FDA limit of 5 ppm of PCBs Indeed, this past May FDA seized interstate ship ments of canned and frozen coho and chinook salmon from Lake Michigan The PCB levels were 7.6 to 10 9 ppm in the canned coho and 8.2 to 9.2 ppm tn the froicn fish Thts past summer the Sport Fishing Inst nuie informed members that about half of the early-returning mature Atlantic salmon in the Boyne River tn Michigan had died "Laboratory analy sts has resulted in a theory that PCBs may be the cause, in combination with other environmental stress," In Lake Superior, large take trout generally contain more than 5 ppm of PCBs Two-fifths of the Superior basin IS ihc lake itself, and the suspicion is that PCBs are entering the lake mainly from air, ram. and snow By contrast, (he sources of PCBs entering Lake Michigan are many and varied A report by Karl E Bremer of the EPA Region V office in Chicago noted that "cooling water from aluminum foundries m the Milwaukee area have been found to contain PCBs The source of the PCBs has been iden tified as hydraulic fluids from die-cast machines. The survey is now being ex panded to include other foundries" In Wisconsin, wastepaper used in recycling is a source of PCBs in stream1, cmcing Lake Michigan and on the other side of the lake, the paper industry wa-ie- in ihe Kalamazoo River cream a contamination problem And last st inter the 9rist,nnn Department of Naiutal Kesouucs found that snowmelt m five ofsc van locations i n the slate contained traces of PCBs as high as 24 parts per billion In addition 10 fish, Bremer reported "A serious situation exists with respect io populations of fish-ealtng birds in ihe Great Lakes area Severe reproduction fie,lure has been identified in herring gull colonies around Lake Ontario 1 here is a positive correlation between early em bryonic mortality and PCB contamina tion. The major effect on young buds is to produce sympioms of chick edema dis ease |wtthj high mortality Michigan of ficials have observed unnaturally high mortalities ol gulls in recent years from Saginaw Bay and Grand Traverse Bay Analysis of Ihc liver and hrates of a dead herring gull from Graod (Tavttse Bay in 1973 showed the presence of 2,600 ppm of Aroclor 1254 " ontamination from PCBs is of con Ccern elsewhere too For instance, this year the Food and Drug Administra tion seized 20,000 pound- of carp from Lake Pepin, a Stretch of the Mississippi River 70 miles downstream from Mmneapolis-St Paul PCB levels were so high the FDA buried the carp Carp and channel catfish taken from the Ohio River also have excessive PCB levels FPA informed the West Virginia De partment of Natural Resources of thts uis July 26, 1974 Jn 1969, scientists at the Gulf Breeze Laboratory in Florida, now pari of EPA. delected PCBs in oysters in Escambia Bay A Monsanto plant that makes syn thetic fibers had been releasing PCBs from Us heat exchange or lubricant sys tem into (he Escambia River Embar rassed Monsanto officials moved to cor rect (he situation, and ihc release has diminished by quantifiable amounts Gulf Breeze scientists have done a number of studies on PCBs and. curiously, Ihe fish found io have ihc highest residues was not a pnd.nor hui ihc silversides (filcmdw ben Ihnai a spe cies that feeds mainly on pl.inkion li is worth noting that in 1969 ihc Escambia Bay shrimp fishery went to hell In 1668 landings totaled more than one million pounds, in 1969, 214,000 pounds, and in HOMS 202455 I to 1970 onlv 52,000 pounds Southern California waters contain PCBs too According to David R Young and 1 hcadorc C 1 Icesen of the Southern Californio Coastal Water Research Projclt "Jn contrast to DDT compounds, rats ate widely discharged from sub marine outfalls along the southern Cali fornia coast i't Bs now constitute the major chlorinated hydrocarbon contam inant found in iiiunictpal wastewaters discharged to the Bight, amounting to approximately three and one-half times die input of DD1 compounds" At the May 1974 LPA hearings on toxic pollutant cfilucm standards a General Electric witness testified not only about the PCB releases into the Hudson but elsewhere as well A General Electric iranslormer plant in Home, Georgia, was discharging PCUs into the Oostanaula River "on the order of one pound per day " The cflect on the biota of the nver was unknown because, as the wi tness. Dr Edward L Simons, admitted, "We have made no measurements of biota for any facility of the General Electric Company " Dr Simons also testified that the Gen eral Electric transformer plant m Pitts field, Mossachusetts, released PCBs into the Housatonic River In the vicinity of the outfalls, according to "occasional samples" by General Electric, the river water contained between 1 and 3 parts per billion of PCRs, while the levels in the sediments ranged from 130 to 1,300 parts per million At "a distance of something between one and six miles" downstream, PCBs were "hot delectable" in the water, hut PCB levels in the sediments were 30 to 60 parts per million. Dr Simons pointed out that the Pittsfield plant was releasing an average of only 0.1 pound per day of PCBs into the Housatonic, with "occastonal excursions as highas0 8 pound per day" "'la put that 0 I pound per day in a possibly more illustrative format," Dr Simons said, "that would correspond to a small jigger of whiskey, about one ounce, so wc are noi talking about a major spill Tins is a relatively small volume of liquid " Later, Dr Simons testified that "a loss of something on the order of one ounce during the day's operations is, we think, a very creditable performance 1 don't know of any other really heavy manufacturing operation which handies fluids in which tbit kind of level of I control is displayed " For sheer screw-up. New York Stale takes first place The September 29,1972, issue of Science carried a paper by Dr Donald 3 Lisk and Car) A Bachc of the Pesticide Residue Laboratory at Cornell University and two other Cornell scien tists reporting lliai alt lake trout tested from Cayuga Lake contained PCBs, and that 80 percent of those more than 22 inches tn length had levels that exceeded 5 ppm The highest level, 30 4 ppm, was found in a nine-year-old fish There was a "highly significant" correlation between PCB concentrations and the age of the fish 'The fish were netted in October 1970," the paper noted "Their ages were accurately known, because the fish are annually stocked as yearlings and dis tinctly marked as to year cl ass " No one in the state Department of Environmental Conservation bothered to call the Cor nell scientists abouilhctr findings. In fact, the only call Bache remembers getting was from a chemical company represen tative (not Monsanto) who wondered where the PCBs were coming from To strike a personal note, I am not surprised by the past inactivity of the New York Department of Environmen tal Conservation In the 1960s it actively suppressed information and photo graphs dealing with huge fish kills by Consolidated Edison Company's Indian Point No. I nuclear plant on the Hudson, and for several years the department officially treated the lower Hudson as nontidal (but it is tidal) because that apparently suited the corporate conve nience of the power industry Indeed, l was once dismissed fiom the stand at a DEC hearing on Consolidated Edison's proposed Storm King pumped-storage hydroelectric project because my sworn testimony that the lower Hudson was tidal was "hearsay " 1 have had personal experience with DEC on PCBs The October 26, 1970, issue oiSports illustrated carried my long article, "Poison Roams Our Coastal Seas," dealing with DDT, PCBs, and other contaminants in gamefish from the Atlantic. Gulf, and Pacific coasts The analyses, paid for by Sports Illustrated, were conducted by the WARF Institute in Madison, Wisconsin They revealed, among other things, that Hudson River striped bass had 11 4 ppm of PCBs in the eggs and 4 01 ppm in the flesh. (These levels were also reported in my article, "The Hudson River Lives," in (he March 1971 issue of Audubon ) I hold a state scientific cullcuor's li cense to seine fishes from the Hudson, and 1 am required so make an annual report On February 17. 1971. I did so. and in my letter to Carl Parker, chief of the Bureau of Fish in tile Department of Environmental Conservation, I told him of the DDT and PCB levels in the eggs "These are grim figures," 1 wrote, "and I certainly think the slate should warn fishermen not to cai striped hass eggs " 1 also told Parker that the levels in the flesh were "not great reading," and I suggested he read the Sports illustrated amde Parker's reply was derisive Forall this, documents ohumed from DEC by John Harris-Cromn and Hudson Riverkcepcr Tom Whyatt show ihai the state began collecting Hudson River fish as early as July 1970. although PCB analyses were not performed until 1972 PCB levels in excess of 5 ppm were found tn largemouth and smallmouth bass striped bass, northern pike sturgenn, and while perch One largemouth 14 7, inches long, taken at the mouth of Esopus Creek, had 53 81 ppm In April )97J DEC collected 22 striped bass from the Hudson River near the 1 appan Zee Bridge The fish were analyzed in 1974. and PCB levels exceeded 5 ppm in IB of 22 fish The highest level was 49 63 ppm Notaword was sdid to the public in May 1975 six striped bass were taken from the Tippan Zee area and analyzed, four of six had excessive levels, the highest 37 80 in a six-pound striper. igh PCB levels in Hudson River Hstriped bass mean trouble else where After spawn ingin the Hudson, the bass disperse along the Atlantic coast at least as far south as New Jersey and at least asfar north as the Merrimack River, 40 miles above Boston It is impossible for a coastal fisherman to distinguish between a Hudson striper and bass that have migrated from Chesapeake Bay, wuh ns numerous spawning rivers No serious PCB contamination has yet been discovered in the flesh of aduh fish in the Chesapeake system, but in 1971 Stripers Unlimited hail foul taige female sniped bass taken in southern New England waters analyzed for I'CBs The WAKE Institute found ihe PCB levels were 13. 18, 37, and 46 ppm No one knows the river of origin of these fish which were caught in Narragansett Bay and off N amuck el In New York Slate in the early 1970s, HONS 202456 m information of vilal importance to the piihliL concerning PCB levels in Lake Ontario coho and chmook salmon was suppressed As I was writing this article, a scientist who requested anonymity sent me copies of PCB analyses performed on Lake Ontario salmon by the Rome Pol lution Laboratory of the Department of l.nvironincntsl Conservation between December 23. 1971. and September 26. 1973 Seven chmook salmon collected in the fall of 1971 were analyzed One chmook had 15 29 ppm of PCBs. and that wits ll>e lowest level of any chmook tesicd 1'ive of the fish had PCB levels ranging from 2035 ppm to 27 23 ppm, and one salmon, a 6`pound, thirteenounce mate, had 14 4R ppm One scientist within DEC, Ward B Stone, wildlife pathologist at the Delmar Wildlife Research Laboratory near Al bany, had warned administrators and superiors for several years that PCBs w ere a menace Ills w armngs. Stone says, were "futile," and there were times he wondered if he were crazy and the rest of the department sane. "No one really cared," says Stone In one blunt memo, he wrote "I hope the department begins to take some ol these toxic problems seriously because >1 is doubtful ihcsc problcmscan be put oil in fact, they have already been put off far loo long " Stone was busy testing and accumu lating data With Frederick D Baker, Casimir F Tuniasoms, and Brian Bush, scientists in the state Department of I leahli, he worked on levels of PCBs and tiace met.!Is in waterfowl Seven species tif waterfowl were analyzed for PCBs, and in two of them-the greater scaup and white-winged scoter-PCBs were consistently found in tissues 'I he greater scaup ts a favorite with duck hunters, whoregardthe breast meat as especially savory fare To quote from the report* "Measurable levels of PCBs were found in most of the available I issu cs o fall specimens ofgreater sea up, a species that prefers large bodies of water (e g , Lake Ontario, Long Island Sound. Oreal South BayJ during migration The analytical data strongly suggest PCB contamination of these waters and the aquatic life on which the ducks feed Since scaup arc hunted for food and since 27 percent of the samples analyzed con tained a greater level than 5 nncrograms per grant, w'hieh is the legal limit for poultry products, surveys of this species on a regular basts would be desirable. The level found approaches lhal which has been shown to cause chick deformi ties and embryonic death in domestic fowl " White-w mged scoters arc very similar in their feeding and migratory habits to the greater scaup They are primarily coastal during migration, although the specimens presented for analysis were collected from inland walcrs All the specimens had measurable levels of PCBs [The highest was 20 4 ppm in the muscles ) Because of the similarity in feeding and-Kabiiat, dan for the scoters and scaup may be combined to establish the presence of PCB contamination in ihe waters tha] are their environment " Two of six canvasback ducks collected front Canandaigua Lake in Omano County had PCBs in their liver, muscle, and brain tissues. "These two birds may have been migrants from highly polluted areas," the report noted One of the canvasbacks had levels of 16 I ppm in the liver and 10.2 ppmin the brain This same canvasback also had lead levels of 12 6 ppm in the liverand brain tissues, and the duck is believed to have died from malnutrition The occurrence of PCBs in canvasbacks is noteworthy inasmuch as last February the National Wildlife Federa tion petitioned the U S Department of the Interior to review' the status of the species because Ihe "once abundant can vasback duck ts low in numbers and distributed over a diminishing range of suitable breeding and wintering area1The slosk of available breeding pairs is even Sower as a result of the most unbal anced sex ratio of any vpccicv of North American duck Tins remnant c.mvasbdek population is faced wiih the loss of wetland habitat and with other stresses with which it is not equipped to deal " Interestingly, according to the Stone report, "No Canada geese showed quan tifiable levels of PCB or trace metals except for one with cadmium in muscle tissue and iwo with mercury in liver tissue The migratory movement of Can ada geese over New York Stale and their feeding habits (they are primarily her bivorous) apparently preclude the ac cumulation of PCBs to any detectable degree " In other animals, Slone has detected 30 16 ppm of PCBs in the liver of a great blue heron from Albany Counlv and 16 57 ppm in the brain of a great blue from Cayuga County A dead herring gull from Oneida Lake had 21 49 ppm in the muscle and 11.05 in the liver, an oltcr from Twitchcll Lake in Herkimer County had49 39 ppm in the bum, and a porpoise washed ashore at Wcslhanipion Beach. Long Island, had 20 3 ppm in ihe liver here is Increasing concern about the Tsynergistic effects PCBs might hasc on animals or that they might reduce resistance to disease For instance, in 1970 Milton Friend and Daniel O MOWS 20245? j t: 1 ramer reported in Science that mallard j stillbirths, and according io a report bv ducklings fed Aroelor 1254 for len days Japanese physicians examination of one showed no apparent ill effects The duck Stillborn felus show ed abnormal skin and lings were then fed food without PCBs hair development for five days and exposed to duck hepa Lillie clinical work on humans has titis virus 1 he mallards suffered signifi been done in this country, although the cantly higher mortality than did birds not Envitonmenlal Protection Agency eal- fed PCBs ' culaics lhai half the population carry I to Among mammals, PCBs have had 3 ppm of PCBs in their fatly tissue One severe effecis on the reproductive capac would have thought General Electric ity of mink, and in a paper to be pub might have done research on employes lished tit (lie Journal of the National working around PCBs, but aside from Cancer Institute, Dr Kenote Kimhrouglt transferring an employe suffering from of the Center for Disease Control of the chloracne to another operation General U S Public Health Sciviceanda team of blcctric has done nothing researchers found that female rats fed Several /conservation organizattons- Arotlor 1260 developed liver cancer the Natural Resources Defense Council, Very important research on primates Hudson River Fishermen's Association, has been done by Dr James R Allen and and Hudson River Sloop Resioration- Deborah Barsoih of the University of have asked EPA Administrator Russell Wisconsin Medical School. Allen and E Train to lake immediate action against Bartoid fed two groups of rhesus mon General Electric under federal law to keys PCBs m a laboratory experiment curtail the discharge of PCBs into the One group got food containing 5 ppm of Hudson In Congress, hearings on PCBs Arotlor 124K, and the other group re tn fish have been scheduled by Repre ceived food w ith 2 5 ppm ofihe chemical sentative Robert L Leggett, chairman of lit iwv months, monkeys in both groups the Subcommittee on Fisheries and lost hatr I rum their faces and necks and Wildlife Conservation and the Environ their skin look on a "sandpaper-like ment of the House Committee on Mer texture " Both groups came down with chant Marine and Fisheries-at the re dine, although it look the 2 5 ppm group quest of other congressmen. Representa- longer to develop it. After six months, ttvesJohn D DtngellofMichigan, Edwin holh groups were bred io control mon B. Forsythe of New Jersey, Richard L keys ihal had not been fed PCBs Six of Ottinger of New York, and Gerry E die eight females in the J ppm group Studds of Massachusetts became pregnant I'uur of the six re The simplest solution to the PCB sorted the fetus or aborted, one had a problem would be for Congress to ban stillbirth, and one gave birth to a very the chemical, as Japan has done Mean undersired infant In the 2,5 ppm group, while, in New York Commissioner Reid alt eight females became pregnant Three has now advised the public no) local any resorbed die felus, and the other five gave fish at all from the Hudson, and he birth to undersized infants reports PCBs have been found in fish And what of the human experience? from the Mohawk River and the St In 1968 about 1,000 Japanese, nearly all Lawrence Reid has charged that "by on the southernmost large island of Kyu discharging the toxic and deleterious shu. were officially diagnosed as hav substance PCB for more than twemy ing what is now called "Yusho" disease years. General Electric has done serious after they used nee oil that had been if not irreparable damage to the contaminated during processing with Hudson '' nn estimated 1.000 io 3,000 ppm of In a complaint brought in September, PCIIs Lsnniatcs of the persons affected the New York Department of Environ re.ithed 15.000 Yushosymplomsinclude mental Conservation accused General severe acnc-or what js now called Electric of violating state water quality "chloratnc"-chcesclikc discharges from standards and the stale Environmental the eves, skin darkening hearing loss, Conservation Law, and a hearing was iind neurological disorders. A number of scheduled at which DCC was to seek an newborn mfanls had abnormal skin abatement order requiring the company pignicnUlion as the result of transpla to reduce its PCB release to two pounds a cental transmission of PCBs. and >he ma day hy the end of this year and zero by jority of the feiuscs born were smaller September 30. 1976 DEC is also asking than the national standard There were that civil penalties be assessed against GeneralEJccinc that the company"i,ikc steps io restore the Hudson and io ciiminaic contamination of theri ver " and i h.i i il post a nnnim urn compliance bond of52 million And another investigation has been ordered by Reid "There has been a failure of government here, and some failures within the department," ibe commissioner says "[ think the public is entitled lo know all the facts " -KOOLHTM BOYLL Know Audubon's regional fieldmen Periodically we puhlish a list of the National Audubon Society's regional representatives Here is an updated rosier of the fieldmen who serve in our nine regions and the slates for which each is responsible Northeast: Richard C Rh in dress, t'O Box 15 1, Stcphcniown, New Yoik 12168 (Connecticut. Maine. Massachusetts. New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Is land. Vermont) Mid-Atlantic. Richard J Manvr. p Q Box 4181, Harrisburg, PcnnsjKania 17 i I! (Delaware, M a ryiand, New Jc rse y, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virgimai Southeast: W Carlyle Blakcncy Jr. P.0 Box 28191, Atlanta. Georgia 3032K (Alabama, Florida, Georgia. Mississippi. North Carolina, South Carolina) North Midwest- Edward M Brigham 111, RR 4, Rosing Hills. Red Wing. Minnesota 55066(Iowa, Michigan, Min nesota, North Dakota. South Dakuta. Wisconsin) Central Midwest: Myron J Swenson, Mauckport. Indiana 47142 (Illinois. In diana, Kentucky. Ohio, Tennessee) Southwest: John L Franstm, 2507 Rogge Lane, Austin, Texas 78723 (Loui siana. New Mexico. Texas) West Central: Ronald Rlataskc. 813 Jumper Drive, Manhattan. Kansas 665U2 (Arkansas. Kansas. Missouri. Nebraska, Oklahoma) Rocky Mountain Robert K Turner, P O Box 3232, Boulder, Colorado 80301 (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming) Western: Paul M Howard Jr 555 Audubon Place, Sacramento Cuhrorni.1 95825 (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Ne vada, Oregon. Washington) HONS 202458 n.<