“When can we eat the fish?” was a question asked by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. The answer: a blank stare. Many of the members of this community are subsistence fishermen facing a crisis; one that has persisted for over 50 years.
Their staple food is affected by mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls, formed as a result of pollution and poor regulation. The National Science Foundation has funded a research project to examine these regulatory impacts on Great Lakes mercury. While significant efforts are being made to address the issue, the future appears bleak, based on mathematical speculation and expert opinion.
Based on current methods of manufacturing there is a dangerous dose of mercury pumped into the atmosphere. From there, these pollutants are condensed and absorbed by the wet soil. Since at least thirty percent of the upper Midwest is wetlands the soil absorbs toxic substances. This mercury is converted to methylmercury, the toxicant, with the help of sulfate-reducing bacteria. Finally, the toxicant is released into the lakes, affecting the food source of sensitive communities, such as the KBIC. Noel Urban, a professor of environmental engineering says a majority of the toxicants travel from China and India and find their way into U.S. soil. And the Upper Peninsula, being a landscape sensitive to mercury, is as detrimental as it is toxophilic.
The lead researcher of the study is Judith Perlinger, a professor of environmental engineering at Michigan Tech. Perlinger says there are three approaches to the problem.
One approach is studying the local area, especially Lake Superior. The second is a regional approach, which would involve analyzing factors within the United States. The third and most cited approach is the global approach. This approach currently involves six institutions, thirty-six researchers, and eleven parenting organizations across the world.
The Minamata Convention on mercury has an increasing number of parties and is leading the examining of the regulations against pollution. A mathematical model for speculation was devised by Perlinger to estimate the severity of the situation fifty years into the future. According to Urban and Perlinger, the year 2068 will not be very different. Even if the “aspirational scenario” – where pollution was brought to a complete halt – were to take place, it would still be years before mercury deposits can be fully removed. Perlinger says that the most feasible scenario to date is the “policy and action scenario”, where the regulations are examined, and small steps are taken to solve the problem.
With such speculations, when can they eat the fish? Perlinger, Urban and their team are continuing to pursue their efforts in understanding mercury cycling in the lakes and how regulations can be checked. Best practices can be discovered and, with time, pollution in the lakes can be reduced. Still, the answer to the question is contrary. On the bright side, a 50-year-old problem is in the process of being solved, which will save lives. Stress on the global approach will encourage cleaner alternatives for the environment.
