Oregon Water Quality Decision Affects Fish Safety and Indian Diet

Luke Fishing From a Scaffold
(Photo courtesy of Wil Phinney)

"DEQ said CRITFC's studies were valued and appropriate, but chose simply to ignore them," Feehan said. "It's disappointing that tribal subsistence fishers will not be protected by this rule."

EQC Vice-Chair Lynn Hampton, who works as a prosecutor on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, called the recommended consumption rate of 17.5 grams per day "ridiculous" but voted to adopt the rule because it is higher than the existing rate. Hampton said she wasn't sure what to think of Fitzpatrick's remark about protecting the general population at the expense of "sensitive sub-populations," which, she said, could include children, pregnant and nursing mothers, and people in poor health as well as Native Americans and Asians.

"I hate to think he was saying the tribal population doesn't matter," she said. "DEQ staff was thinking statistically, but because Oregon has so many people, not just tribal people, who consume wildlife and fish, the accuracy of fish consumption rates is very important in determining health effects."

Fish eaters, Hampton said, need to know that the amount of toxins allowed under the new rule assumes a certain level of consumption and that Native Americans exceed that EPA average

"It would be wise to be informed about the level of consumption and the toxic risk it poses to them," she said.

During deliberations by the EQC, before the vote, Commissioner Ken Williamson noted that EPA has "huge safety factors" built into their risk assessment. Hampton said she found those safety factors reassuring, but still expressed her opinion about the adopted consumption rate.

"Partly because of where I live and work, I take for granted that people consume large quantities of fish, so I have a hard time accepting the national rate is what we should be using," Hampton said. "As a citizen and lifelong resident of Oregon, I think this amount is ridiculous. I have a daughter in Illinois who says people there don't know what a fish looks like. I can't think that the typical Midwesterner eats as much fish as a person from the Pacific Northwest."