DEQ releases 2017 fish tissue monitoring data

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has released the 2017 fish tissue monitoring data.

This information will be evaluated by the Virginia Department of Health and could result in the lifting of current fish consumption advisories or in the issuing of new ones. This marks the first year since 2008 that new data was collected in multiple basins across the state.

The full 2017 fish tissue monitoring data report is available on the DEQ website: www.DEQ.Virginia.gov/Programs/Water/WaterQualityInformationTMDLs/WaterQualityMonit oring/FishTissueMonitoring/FishTissueResults.aspx.

Sediment samples were also analyzed at selected sites in 2017 for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) to support current or future total maximum daily load development.

Results are available on the DEQ website: www.DEQ.Virginia.gov/Programs/Water/WaterQualityInformationTMDLs/WaterQualityMonit oring/FishTissueMonitoring/SedimentResults.aspx.

During 2017, fish tissue samples were collected from the upper portions of the James River, three major tributaries to the Chowan River, and sites on Lake Anna, Lake Gordonsville and Motts Run Reservoir. These samples were analyzed for PCBs and a suite of metals including arsenic, mercury and lead. DEQ also conducted two special-monitoring studies for fish tissue metals in 2017, one in the Potomac Embayments and a second on the Dan River.

“DEQ’s current fish tissue monitoring program provides the data needed to fulfill our mission of identifying impairments and guiding corrective actions to improve our waters,” said DEQ Water Planning Division Director Jutta Schneider. “This information also helps people who eat fish from Virginia’s waterways make informed choices.”

Initiated in the late 1970s, DEQ’s Fish Tissue and Sediment Monitoring program was focused on identifying both impairments of aquatic ecosystems and potential health risks associated with consuming fish from state waters. The program was expanded in 1995 to monitor all of Virginia’s 14 major river basins on a rotational basis every five years for both fish tissue and sediment.

Budget reductions led to the suspension of the program in 2009, however the program was redesigned and reinstated on a much smaller scale in 2012 focusing on existing impairments and fish consumption advisories.

More information

DEQ’s Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Programs
More information on DEQ’s water quality monitoring and assessment programs is available on the agency’s website: www.DEQ.Virginia.gov/Programs/Water/WaterQualityInformationTMDLs.aspx VDH

Fish Consumption Advisories
Information on fish consumption advisories can be found on the VDH website: www.VDH.Virginia.gov/environmental-epidemiology/public-health-toxicology/fishconsumption-advisories/