[Pharmwaste] House Panel Prods EPA to Speed Probe of Pollutants, Abnormal Fish

[Tenace, Laurie]

House Panel Prods EPA to Speed Probe of Pollutants, Abnormal Fish
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR20061004016
74.html 
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 5, 2006; Page B03

A panel of U.S. representatives criticized the Environmental Protection
Agency yesterday for the slow pace of research on pollutants that may be
causing male fish in the Potomac River to grow eggs.

In a hearing before the House Government Reform Committee triggered by a news
report that the abnormal fish have been discovered in new locations, Virginia
and Maryland lawmakers quizzed EPA officials about why their agency hadn't
yet met a requirement from 1996, which ordered them to identify chemicals
that disrupt hormone systems.

"Why is it taking so long?" asked committee Chairman Thomas M. Davis III
(R-Va.).

Benjamin H. Grumbles, an EPA official overseeing water quality, said the job
turned out to be much more difficult than first imagined and required federal
scientists to create a set of tests from scratch.

"The agency is being as proactive and protective as we can," Grumbles said.
"The science needs to drive the solutions."

Grumbles did, however, offer a promise that the EPA would try to accelerate
its efforts, and he said he hoped that it could begin the process of testing
chemicals for hormonelike effects by the end of next year.

Still, the delay was criticized by Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), who said
the 1996 order was "timely, it was important, it should have been done."

The "intersex" fish, which were growing eggs in male sex organs or producing
egg-related proteins, have been found throughout the Potomac watershed in
recent years, including at one site near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey who discovered the fish believe
the culprit comes from a class of endocrine disruptors. These chemicals,
found in hand soap and waste such as sewage and runoff from farms, are
chemically similar to natural hormones and can fool animals' natural
signaling systems.

Even less well understood than the problems in animals are the consequences
for human health. Lawmakers pressed for ways to explain the risks: Rep.
Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) asked Gregory Masson, a scientist at the Fish and
Wildlife Service, if he would eat one of the abnormal fish. Masson said yes.

Cummings also asked federal scientists to rate their concerns from one to 10,
with 10 being the most alarming. Masson said seven.

Grumbles offered assurances that, so far, there are no links to human health
problems. But he gave the problem an eight.

"Fish are sentinels," he said. "They are warning signs, and they need to be
taken very seriously."


Laurie J. Tenace
Environmental Specialist
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Road, MS 4555
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2400
PH: (850) 245-8759
FAX: (850) 245-8811
Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us  
 
view our mercury web pages at: 
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/mercury/default.htm 

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