~ 

 concerned about mercury 

aJOr survey of fish mercury 

walleye tn Btg Horn Reservo1r on 

tghest levels 1n the country 

arby Colstnp LS the maJor 

ut1on m the state of Montana, 

ated tn B!lhngs and Hardin MT 

 to land and water surfaces 

ercury tnto methylmercury 

ethylmercury 1s b1omagn1fied up 

of 10 m1!11on 1n top predators 

g contam1nated fish have the 

US 8% of women of chlld- 

at nsk due to h1gh blood MeHg 

re exposed to levels 1n womb 

rment 

 the natives regularly eat local 

L1ttle Bighorn and B1ghorn the 

 Lodge Grass Creek and Soap 

om Willow Creek Reservo1r 

 L1ttle B1g Horn College the 

1ce Hospttal the Crow Water & 

ate Umvers1ty Bozeman and the 

ed the first ava1lable data on fish 

water bod1es 

-

 

F1gure 3 

atershed Pryor Watershed 

Mercury levels detected in fish from rivers of the Crow Reservation, Montana M =:rescentia Cummins1, Mari Eggers2 , Steve Hamner2 , Anne Camper2 and Tim Ford3 1Little Big Horn College, 2Montana State University, and 3University of New England MONTANA 51:\,rll 1}:-llVERSliY Summer 2008 Electrorishmg Crew (L toR) M•cah Wh•le Clay Crescen11a Cumm1ns Jul1an Goes Ahead Antone Lopez Glenn Boltz Robbin Wagner Audrey Plenty Hoops and Jarv•s Gus! (M1ssmg Justin Hugs Sara Ptaggemeyer Man Eggers and Ada Iron) Deep Nater under !he bridge on the L1ttle B·g Horn R•ver was a challenge L toR Juhan Goes Ahead MICah While Clay Crescent1a Cumm1ns Glenn Boltz Jarv1sGus\ Consumpt1on gU1del1nes state that people at h1gher nsk should not consume more than one servtng per month of any fish wrth methylmercury levels 1n the range of 0 170- 0 650 ppm In th1s h1gher nsk group are women of ch1ldbeanng age nurs1ng mothers, and children SIX and under AU other people should not eat more than one serv~ng per week of such fish (dphhs mt gov/fish2005) Ed1ble fish 1n our survey wh1ch are contaminated at th1s level on elude (a) brown trout 12" and larger from W1llow Creek Reservoir, and 16" and larger from the L1tlle B1g Horn R1ver (b) ra1nbow trout 12 and larger from Willow Creek Reservoir and (c) small mouth bass and larger from L1ttle B1g Horn R1ver Some of the channel catfish 12' and larger from the Little Bog Hom R1ver also were s•mtlar1y contam1nated Smaller trout catfish and small mouth bass were less contam1nated and therefore a safer cho1ce for consumpt1on The larger brown and ratnbow trout 10 Willow Creek Reservo1r are of part•cular concern s1nce the Reservo1r 15 a popular fish1ng area Th1s ReservOir 1s located tn the foothills of the 81g Horn Mountams rt seems hkely that the maJor source of contam1nat1on 1S aenal depos1t1on Hav1ng coal bum•ng power plants dose to the Crow Reservation has caused concern Not very many people eat f1sh on the Reservation, but the ones that do eat fish eat a lot of f1sh The f1sh 1n W1llow Creek Reservo1r had h1gher concentrat1ons of methylmercury The fish caught upnver 1n Pryor Creek had the lowest concentrations We found levels tn some fish that would warrant an adv1sory to hm1t consumpt1on Pubhc education w1ll be an tmportant aspect of th1s work, and ts planned for th•s spnng pnor to the beg1nn1ng of the fishtng season As we only tested fish fillets, further testtng Will be needed 1f people are also eat1ng fish sk1n or other parts of the fish A survey IS be•ng conducted to determ1ne how much fish people are eat1ng and of wh1ch spec1es Montana Department of Public Health and Human Servtces 2005 Montana Sport F1sh Consumpt1on Gu1dehnes http //www dphhs mt gov/fish2005 http lmns stow 'Tit aov http //www stopthe~oalptant org l•ttle B1g Horn College PrOject Coord.nator Cummms and mtern Lopez leachwaterqualltymonllonngtolocalschool children The members of the Crow Envtronmental Health Steenng Comm1ttee who help gu1de th1s work are Urban Bear Don t Walk Ada Bends John Doyle Will,am Dnftwood, Roberta f,tch Larry K1ndness Myra Lerthand Athal1a Rose Mom son Theo Round Face Suzette Nan to-Spang and Sara Young We thank Robbm Wagner and h1s colleagues from the US F1sh and W1ldhfe Serv1ce The research descnbed 1n th•s presentatiOn was supported by the Nat,onallnstotute for Health Grant Number P20 RR·16455--04 from the INBRE Program of the Nat1onal Center For Research Resources NIH Grant Number 2 R25 GM056806-0g Grant Number P20MD002317 from the Nat1onal Center on Mononty Health and Health D1spant1es NIH EPA STAR Research Assostance Agreement #FP91674401 and Research Infrastructure for M1nonty lnst•tut1ons, NIH Ne1ther NIH nor EPA has off1C1ally endorsed th1s pubhcat10n and the v1ews expressed here1n may not reflect the v1ews of NIH or the EPA