February 22, 2014 — A day after saying state officials knew lobsters near the mouth of the Penobscot River contained unsafe levels of the toxin, researchers say the officials had older information that did not warrant issuing consumer alerts in 2010.
Scientists who claimed that Maine officials knew for years about high levels of mercury in lobsters near the mouth of the Penobscot River reversed their account on Friday, saying they never notified the state about the hazardous mercury levels.
The scientists told two news outlets in separate interviews Thursday that they had shared those findings with state officials in reports issued in 2008 and 2009 and in a meeting in 2010, as they continued to work on a court-ordered study of mercury in the river.
But on Friday, after talking among themselves, the researchers said they had misremembered what information had been made available to the state and when it was made available. They said they realized that while state officials did have some information about above-normal mercury levels in lobsters by 2010, none of the data released to that point showed levels high enough to require immediate action.
Although the scientists had test results from 2008 at a site in South Verona that showed for the first time that lobsters had mercury contamination at more than twice the federal warning threshold for consumption, they did not share that information in either of their written reports or at their meeting with state officials in 2010.
“The information available to the state folks back in 2010 was not something that should have prompted firm action. It’s the more recent data that’s interesting,” said Chris Whipple, a member of the Penobscot River Mercury Study Panel and an environmental consultant for Environ International Corp. who specializes in radioactive waste, hazardous air pollutants and environmental mercury.
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald