Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Contacts: Ralph Pribble, 651-296-7792 Paul Hoff, 651-296-7799 Toll-free: 1-800-657-3864 Saint Paul, Minn. -- Based on recently completed analysis of fish sampling by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Minnesota Department of Health today issued new advisories on consumption of fish caught in Lake Calhoun and in parts of the Mississippi River due to the presence of perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs). (See MDH press release at www.health.state.mn.us/news/pressrel/fish041607.html.) Because bluegill are known to move between connected lakes, MDH extended the advisory to bluegill taken from any of the upper chain of lakes connected to Calhoun: Brownie, Cedar, Lake of the Isles and Harriet. The advice is based on levels of one particular compound called PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) found in the fish. PFOA and PFBA, two other PFCs of concern, did not show up at significant levels in the sampling. PFOS was a component of the popular 3M product Scotchguard until a few years ago. Fillets from bluegills taken from Lake Calhoun averaged 319 parts per billion of PFOS, enough to prompt an advisory limit of one meal per month. The sampling was part of the ongoing effort to sample for PFCs in different settings in Minnesota. PFCs have been found world-wide in environmental sampling. Some of the chemicals, which are proprietary products of the 3M Company manufactured since the 1950s, have migrated from four waste disposal areas in Washington County into a wide area of ground water and some surface waters, where one, PFOS, has accumulated in fish. Because MDH has set limits on how much PFCs people can safely consume in water or fish, the MPCA, supplying data to MDH, has been sampling fish in an expanding area since 2004. MPCA Commissioner Brad Moore said, "The Minneapolis lakes and other urban lakes are part of who we are as Minnesotans. Many people fish for bluegills, and we are working to find out more about what's going on in Lake Calhoun and whether other popular fishing waters in the metro area are affected." Lake Calhoun represents the first finding of PFCs above health-based levels from a location that is not associated with the east metro waste-disposal areas. There are no currently known sources of PFCs in the chain's watershed. The lake was sampled last November as part of an ongoing effort to set surface-water standards for PFCs, in part by determining how PFCs in water lead to accumulations in fish. University of Minnesota research had found low levels of PFCs in water from Lake Calhoun in 2005, giving the MPCA an opportunity to test a previously sampled lake with follow-up water and fish sampling. The MPCA also sampled water and fish from the St. Croix River, which showed either no PFCs or extremely low levels at the limits of detection. In addition, water samples from five outstate Minnesota lakes all showed either no or extremely low PFC levels. "Obviously, the findings from Lake Calhoun raise a number of questions and concerns," said Paul Hoff, supervisor of the MPCA unit that coordinated the sampling. "Where is it coming from? Is it unique to this lake, or is this what we would find in other, similar lakes in an urban setting? And why are we seeing the higher levels particularly in bluegills?" "We don't know the answers to these questions yet," Hoff said. "But we're going to do our best to find them." MPCA officials have been working with MDH and the Department of Natural Resources on where and how to expand the fish sampling. Sampling is expected to begin within the next few weeks on other Twin Cities lakes including Gervais, Keller, Phalen, Nokomis, Hiawatha, Minnetonka, White Bear, Bald Eagle, Elmo, Olson, Jane, Demontreville and others popular with anglers. More could be added later. Only a few laboratories in North America are capable of analyzing for PFCs at these levels, and getting results from a large number of samples takes time. Results of this season's fish work may be available later in the summer. In other efforts this season to determine the presence of PFCs in the environment, the MPCA also is looking at inflows and outflows at 31 wastewater treatment plants around the state, and at ground water and leachate at a similar number of active landfills. And ground water around the state has been and is continuing to be surveyed for the chemicals. Results from these efforts will be available later in 2007. Further information about PFCs is on the MPCA Web site at www.pca.state.mn.us/hot/pfc.html.