July 19, 2015 — MASSACHUSETTS — Mercury emissions from major Massachusetts sources have declined by 90 percent over the past two decades, but mercury levels in the state’s freshwater fish hold stubbornly high, with many species too contaminated for pregnant women and children to eat.
Yet languid summer days and the lure of Massachusetts’ 3,000 freshwater bodies – from the Berkshire’s Lake Pontoosuc to Boston’s Jamaica Pond – send many anglers casting for a good fish dinner.
The inability to reduce mercury in fish to safe eating levels troubles environment and health officials – and added to that concern is growing evidence that some freshwater fish in similar northern latitudes, from the Great Lakes to Scandinavia, appear to have increasing mercury levels after years of decline. The New England Center for Investigative Reporting found six studies in the past decade that point to increasing mercury levels in freshwater fish.
“We need to figure out what is going on,’’ said Michael S. Hutcheson, former head of air and water toxics for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection who retired last month. Reducing emissions in Massachusetts certainly helped – some freshwater fish near closed incinerators and other mercury sources showed a 44 percent decline in mercury levels – but the difficulty in getting further reductions speaks to a more complex problem, he said.