Duwamish crab, fish are unsafe to eat, state warns
Concentration of PCBs dangerously high
People should not eat crabs or basically any fish other than salmon caught in the lower Duwamish River because they’re contaminated with dangerous amounts of PCBs, the state warned yesterday.
Seafood collected last summer showed higher levels of PCBs than scientists had previously detected, said officials with the state Department of Health.
“We’re really concerned about moms and babies developing in the womb and small children,” said Marcia Henning, an education and outreach specialist with the department.
PCBs — polychlorinated biphenyls — can cause developmental defects such as learning problems in children. The banned industrial chemicals can harm the immune system and are suspected to cause cancer.
The highest concentrations were found in Dungeness crab guts, also called crab butter, where PCB levels reached on average 4.7 parts per million. That’s about 100 times higher than the amount found in local salmon, health officials said.
When Gary Palcisko, a state health assessor, received the information from the Environmental Protection Agency, “I had to call them up to make sure these numbers were true.
“I was shocked,” he said. “I wondered, was I reading something wrong.”
More than five miles of the Duwamish stretching to the southern end of Harbor Island are a Superfund site and part of a multimillion-dollar cleanup project targeting PCBs and other pollutants.
Most of the chemical contaminants are the result of decades of past industrial activity in the area. Some of the polluted sediment has been dredged from the river, and in some spots the contamination has been capped with clean dirt to isolate the chemicals.
But some residents — particularly immigrants from Asia and the Pacific Islands — still turn to the Duwamish to put a meal on the table. Crab and resident fish, such as English sole, starry flounder, sculpin and perch, are all hauled from the river. It remains OK to eat salmon from the waterway, because they are believed to spend a limited amount of time in the most contaminated areas.
Previously, health officials had warned people not to eat more than one meal a month of fish from the Duwamish.
An existing advisory not to eat any shellfish from anywhere in King County other than Vashon and Maury islands remains in place. Some support a ban on eating all Duwamish seafood.
“I tell anybody who will listen. The river is polluted and people should not be eating the fish or anything from that river,” said Cecile Hansen, chairwoman for the Duwamish Tribe.
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Duwamish crab, fish are unsafe to eat, state warns