Fish Tissue Monitoring | Virginia DEQ

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Fish Tissue Monitoring

DEQ is responsible for enforcing the statutes of the State Water Control Board. The agency recognizes that many chemical pollutants discharged into state waters by point and non-point sources may impair public uses and/or aquatic life. Specifically, some of these chemical pollutants accumulate and persist in aquatic sediments and in the tissue of aquatic organisms – including game fish – at potentially toxic concentrations.

These chemical pollutants tend to magnify in concentration as they pass through aquatic food chains and may cause detrimental effects to consumers, including humans. To address these concerns, DEQ’s Fish Tissue and Sediment Monitoring Program conducts routine studies of fish tissue and sediment samples in state waters.

The program fulfills the Clean Water Act 106 United States Environmental Protection Agency grant requirements and the code of Virginia, which directs DEQ to implement the collection of fish tissue and sediment as part of a multi-phase approach to systematically assess, manage and communicate the associated risks of contaminants in the aquatic environment.

Fish Tissue Data

The 2022 results are for samples collected mainly within watersheds of:

Potomac River tributaries (non-tidal and tidal, impoundments, etc.)
Albemarle Sound (Great Dismal Swamp and Currituck Sound tributaries, etc.)
Big Sandy River impoundments (North Fork Pound Lake, Flannagan Reservoir, etc.)

Special monitoring studies were also conducted in the Dan River and Roanoke River watersheds.

Sediment Data

Shenandoah Mercury Study

Mercury was used by DuPont Co. in Waynesboro as a catalyst in fiber production between 1929 and 1950. During that time, strict storage and disposal regulations did not exist, and mercury made its way to the South River. A serious contamination problem was discovered in the 1970s.

In a settlement between DuPont and the State Water Control Board in 1984, DuPont established a trust fund to support a 100-year monitoring program for mercury. This fund is managed by DEQ and has supported monitoring for fish, water and sediments since that time. In 1984, scientists expected that the mercury levels would decline over time. However, information collected during the last 20 years indicates that levels are remaining stable, with no clear decreases over time.

In November 2000, DuPont and DEQ agreed to voluntarily establish an interdisciplinary team of individuals from industry, government, citizens groups, academic institutions and private research to revisit the issue of mercury contamination and its consequences. This group is called the South River Science Team. The science team and its members are involved in a number of ongoing studies that go well beyond the scope of DEQ’s original long-term monitoring effort. The group also ensures that the public is properly informed of risks associated with eating contaminated fish.

In December 2016, the Commonwealth and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposed settlement to resolve natural resource damage claims stemming from the release of mercury.

Kepone Fish Data

From 1966 through 1975, Allied Chemical Company and its subsidiary Life Science Products, Inc. produced a persistent chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticide called Kepone. During production, an estimated 90,720 kg of Kepone was released to the environment through atmospheric emissions, wastewater discharges and bulk disposal of off specification batches. The James River and its tributaries from Richmond to Newport News were contaminated. In 1975, the entire James River – from the fall line at Richmond to the Hampton Roads/Norfolk Bridge Tunnel, including all tributaries – was closed to the taking of any shellfish and/or finfish because of Kepone.

DEQ continually monitored Kepone levels in the James River since its identification in 1975 until 2009. Kepone levels in finfish, ground water and sediment have decreased since the onset of the problem. The Virginia Department of Health established a level of concern of 0.30 parts per million (ppm) Kepone in edible fish filet samples, which has not been exceeded since 1996.

In 2016, VIMS received a grant from the Virginia Environmental Endowment to collect and analyze 85 samples of striped bass and white perch from areas of the James River with the highest historical Kepone concentrations. The VIMS report showed that 35 percent of the samples fell below the Kepone detection limit of 0.010 ppm, and that average concentrations ranged from 0.015 to 0.030 ppm in samples with measurable levels. This continues to be well below the FDA action level and VDH level of concern of 0.30 ppm.

Fish tissue and sediment kepone data