Maine CDC Suggests You Don't Eat Fish from these Dangerous Waters

Mainers love to fish.

No question about that. But more and more in recent years, it's become harder to eat what we catch. Not because of over-fishing or size limits, but because of harmful things in the water. For instance, we're constantly being warned about Mercury levels in our freshwater fish.

The CDC typically recommends that young children and pregnant women shouldn't eat any freshwater fish in Maine, and that healthy adults should only do so once a month. But at this point, we're pretty well aware of that warning, and probably follow suit for the most part. But now there's even more to worry about, depending on where you are.

Now it's PFAS, and not just Mercury we're being warned about.

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Now, this won't affect everyone, statewide. You mostly need to worry if you're in Southern Maine, specifically areas near the old Brunswick Naval Air station. According to WABI, there was a recent spill of a large amount of fire retardant foam, and many bodies of water nearby contain high PFAS levels.

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PFAS, known to most as "forever chemicals", were definitely in the foam that was spilled, but this warning has only so much to do with that, and the Maine CDC would've likely released the info anyway. But with so much attention on that area, it seemed more important to get the info out ASAP.

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Which waters are most affected?

Right now, the worst seems to be Picnic Pond, Site 8 Stream, and Merriconeag Stream. The CDC says you shouldn't eat any fish from these spots at all. Additionally, people should be aware of issues at Mere Brook, on the Eastern side of the runway, and to heavily limit fish from the Western side of Mere Brook.

In those areas, people should limit their meals from there to no more than 6 meals per year. Not to mention, in some of these spots, there's also foam still floating around. Keeping that in mind, they're even saying you shouldn't swim there. It's all nasty stuff, for sure. Let's hope something more can be done to make things safe again.

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Source: Maine CDC Recommends You Don’t Eat Fish from these Dangerous Waters

Filed Under: Maine CDC, Maine

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