Delaware Department of Natural Resources is reporting an overall reduction of contaminants in the state’s watersheds, following a special study ending last year. This lessens the risk of eating fish caught in Delaware.
DNREC Hydrologist John Cargill says cleanup efforts have helped reduce the amount of PCBs, mercury and doxins and furans found in fish.
“There’s been a concerted effort all over DNREC, and other areas not just DNREC, to be a little cleaner in practice, to clean up the messes that we have and to just be aware,” said Cargill.
Cargill points to one cleanup project at Mirror Lake in Dover, where the state added carbon to the water to sequester contaminates.
“We put carbon into the lake to bind PCBs and a few other organic chemicals that we found in the sediments,” he said. He adds this is one of many cleanup methods the state uses on its watersheds.
DNREC and The Delaware Department of Health say people can eat more meals per year of fish caught in Delaware—some species up to three times as much.
The state is also reinstating Red Clay Creek as a site suitable for stocking trout after more than 30 years of contamination concerns and has removed mercury advisories from some lakes and streams.