The Michigan Office of the Great Lakes today announced important cleanup milestones at two West Michigan lakes.
Muskegon and White lakes are among Michigan’s 14 federally designated Areas of Concern. After cleanups in recent years, federal authorities determined that neither is especially impaired by restrictions on fish and wildlife consumption.
For local residents and anglers, the removal of these “Beneficial Use Impairments” means the fish in White Lake and Muskegon Lake no longer contain concentrations of PCBs and mercury higher than fish in surrounding areas. While fish consumption advisories continue to exist for these two water bodies, they are no more restrictive than the advisories in effect for other nearby inland lakes.
Extensive contaminated sediment removal projects at both lakes over the last 15 years have reduced contaminant levels in the fish. Studies of largemouth bass and carp in 2006 and 2011 showed PCBs and mercury in edible portions of fish at the AOCs have dropped to levels consistent with those at nearby Pentwater Lake, which has no industrial past.
For current advisories on fish consumption in your area, please visit: www.michigan.gov/eatsafefish.
This continues a trend of progress toward removing these sites from the list of Michigan AOCs, with four impairments eliminated at White Lake and three addressed at Muskegon Lake since 2011.
Click here to be introduced to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
Source: MDEQ