The latest round of tests for PCBs in catfish and striped and spotted bass indicates that dining on the Coosa River's prime species remains unsafe at a number of prime fishing spots.
All species of fish in Choccolocco Creek also remain under a PCB advisory.
In the past few years, some experts had anticipated that the PCB levels in bass and catfish in the upper and middle Coosa River would dip below the state's PCB fish consumption advisory level.
State toxicologist Neil Sass said he was tempted to lift the PCB fish advisory for upper Logan Martin Lake in 2002, but he wants two years of "clean data."
That hasn't happened yet.
The bass and catfish that inhabit at least five popular fishing locations on the Coosa - Riverside, Stemley Bridge, Cropwell Creek, upper Lay Lake and Neely Henry Lake - continue to have elevated levels of PCBs, according to data collected by both the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and Solutia, Inc.
Solutia is conducting a separate investigation of Monsanto's pollution in Choccolocco Creek and Logan Martin Lake.
The fish advisories are set by the Alabama Department of Public Health to prevent people from accumulating PCBs or other contaminants in their bodies through the consumption of fish. The health department uses the Food and Drug Administration advisory level for PCBs - 2 parts per million in fish tissue.
PCBs, which accumulate up the food chain from invertebrates to fish to humans, are extremely persistent and are listed by the federal government as probable carcinogens. Recent studies have linked consumption of PCB-contaminated fish to a variety of human effects, including adult memory loss and neurodevelopmental effects in children.
Similar to the Hudson River in New York - where striped bass maintain elevated levels long after PCBs were banned in 1977 - PCBs still are making their way up the food chain in the Coosa River.
The PCB levels in Coosa fish are highest below Choccolocco Creek, a 70-mile stream impacted by historic Monsanto pollution. Choccolocco empties into the Coosa in Talladega County.
ADEM records show that the Coosa's striped bass (non-native) and blue catfish appear to retain the highest average concentrations of PCBs. One out of 24 largemouth bass collected by the ADEM last fall in the Coosa River - from Neely Henry Lake to Lay Lake - contained elevated levels of PCBs.
The Coosa's recreational fishermen say that, partly because of the commercial fishing ban and health advisory, some of the mature Coosa fish are growing into monster specimens.
"You can catch 20- to 30-pound blue cats (catfish), very regular," said Terry Bain, a Pell City native, who participates in the almost-daily bass fishing tournaments in Logan Martin and Lay lakes.
Predator and bottom-dwelling fish living in close proximity to the source of the contamination tend to have the highest PCB levels. For example, a 2.6-pound blue catfish collected in Choccolocco Creek by ADEM in 1999 tested at 74 parts per million.
The PCB levels in Choccolocco Creek fish generally are much higher than the Coosa, likely because of their closer proximity to the original source of the PCB contamination in the waterways, Anniston's former Monsanto plant. The facility produced PCBs from 1929 to 1971.
Even the creek's non-predator fish, like bluegill, continue to register elevated levels of PCBs, according to data collected in fall 2001 by one of Solutia's contractors, Dr. David Bayne of Auburn University.
At the mouth of Choccolocco, the bass and catfish, as well as the popular black crappie, all contain elevated levels of PCBs.
The most contaminated Choccolocco fish collected by ADEM and Solutia in 2001 included channel catfish, bluegill, spottail shiner and freshwater drum collected near the mouths of Cheaha and Coldwater creeks - all of which averaged higher than 2 parts per million.
