8 waterways in the American River Watershed impaired from methylmercury

Information from kickoff meeting for the American River Watershed Mercury TMDL (put on by the CVRWQCB) is located at the following website:

http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralvalley/water_issues/tmdl/central_valley_projects/american_river_hg/index.shtml

The "Meeting Presentation" link on the website (3rd link down) is the presentation that was given at the meeting.  The "American River Watershed Mercury TMDL Information Sheet" (4th link down) is a good two page overview - and is the handout that was provided at the meeting.

A few items to note:
The Central Valley Water Board identified eight waterways in the American River Watershed as impaired because some fish have elevated levels of methylmercury that may harm human and wildlife consumers (0.3 ppm is the criteria for human health.  Sub-lethal, but may cause birth defects).  These eight waterbodies include:
   1. lower American River
   2. Lake Natoma
   3. Folsom Lake
   4. North Fork American River (North Fork Dam to Folsom Lake)
   5. South Fork American River (Slab Creek Reservoir to Folsom Lake)
   6. Slab Creek Reservoir
   7. Oxbow Reservoir
   8. Hell Hole Reservoir
French Meadows and Loon Lake will likely be added to the 303(d) list during the next cycle based on new data and exceedances.  Likely many areas were not added simply due to lack of data.

I heard it does make the meat taste better, despite the birth defects.  Yum.

HB