Do not eat the fish
Additional extreme warnings have been issued about the dangerous pollution in Hamilton area waterways. They are underlined in a new federal study and are being emphasized to Hamilton city council by the biologist who uncovered the source of toxic pollutants more than a decade ago.
Dr Joe Minor is pushing city councillors “to do a better job telling people about the highly PFAS contaminated ‘do not eat’ fish … downstream from Hamilton International Airport.” This includes the popular Binbrook Conservation Area and the Upper Welland River.
Dr Minor is pointing to new findings in a million-dollar federal study of the local contamination problem that includes safety warnings that have not yet been recognized in provincial fish consumption guidelines.
“I am writing again because a professional review of the recent scientific literature has concluded that the amounts of PFAS contaminated fish that it is ‘advisable’ to eat need to be significantly reduced,” writes Dr Minor in an August 28 letter to the mayor and city councillors that has been shared with CATCH. “I do not think this message is making it to people fishing in the area.”
He cites the latest edition of the on-line Guide to Eating Ontario Fish produced by the Ontario government which includes specific warnings for fish caught in the Binbrook Reservoir (also known as Lake Niapenco). But he goes on to emphasize that these are now very insufficient.
The guide currently advises that “Women of child-bearing age and children under 15 years old” should not eat any black crappie, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, channel catfish, pike (over 24”), white crappie (over 10”), carp (over 12”), or brown bullhead (over 12”) because they are highly contaminated with PFAS and that “men and women past childbearing age should not eat carp over 22” because they are highly contaminated with PFAS.”
But Dr Minor notes that since those were issued “Transport Canada has funded a million dollar, seven year (and ongoing) study called the Hamilton International Airport - Offsite Risk Assessment” which he is offering to share with councillors.
“The study reports that it is likely that the spraying of PFOS ended in 1989, and the spraying of all PFAS ended in 1994,” he explains. “Despite this, high levels of environmental contamination (including tainted fish) persist for many kilometres downstream to this day (33 years later). It is likely that this pollution will remain a significant problem for the foreseeable future.”
“An important part of the study was to evaluate whether or not the levels of PFAS/PFCs/PFOS currently used in the Guide to Eating Ontario Fish are consistent with the current state of scientific knowledge,” Dr Minor writes.
“The short answer is not even close. Adult men should eat no more than 30% of the amounts recommended in the Guide, and children and women of childbearing age should eat no more than 14% of the amounts recommended in the Guide. This means that the amounts listed in the Guide for men need to be decreased by more than 3.3-fold, and the amounts listed for children and women of childbearing age need to be decreased by more than 7.1-fold.”
Dr Minor points to similarly deficient warnings in the 2022 Guide for the Upper Welland River, and the river downstream of Lake Niapenco all the way to Port Davidson. And he reminds city officials of the history of this contamination.
“The highly contaminated areas are downstream from the former fire-fighting practice pad at the Hamilton International Airport. In order to comply with directives from Transport Canada, fire fighters sprayed large amounts of AFFF (aqueous film-forming foam) on practice fires in order to train with the use of AFFF. A popular type of AFFF had PFAS/PFCs/PFOS as a major ingredient, and the PFAS/PFCs/PFOS ran off the airport site and contaminated many kilometers of waterway downstream in the upper Welland River. The zone of high contamination is so long that it extends across Hamilton and on into Niagara.”
Minor says he doesn’t know “when the Guide to Eating Ontario Fish will be corrected to bring it in line with current scientific knowledge” but that “Transport Canada and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks believe that their public notification regarding these results is ‘adequate’.” He asks if city officials have even been informed of the latest science.
