July 2, 2014

Beautiful River (but Contains Mercury)

It's a shame that the beautiful South Fork has a pollution problem. The mercury is left over from a factory that used to operate upstream. And just a little farther down, the water contains PCB's from a rayon plant that operated in Front Royal. It closed in 1989 but pollution lodges in silt and sediment and remains for many years, a sad legacy of ignorance and carelessness. (See my post of Nov. 8, 2012.)

Aside from the somewhat-toxic fish, the Shenandoah is a lovely river.


Linking to: Signs, Signs

16 comments:

  1. Hi Linda! Thanks for passing by my blog. I definately would NOT eat any fish from this river, however little. Such a shame to taint the river in what appears to be a lovely beauty spot.

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  2. Oh that is so sad! The advantage of being in your part of the world is the responsibility of the government to at least inform the other citizens of the condition in areas like that. In ours, we eat at our own risk.

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  3. Sad sign. It's beautiful there, but so sad about the mercury in all of our fish anymore. Couldn't get the video to play!

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  4. How sad. And, that's such a beautiful place, too.

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  5. So if there's mercury in the fish, do they rise closer to the top of the river as the temperature gets higher? Sorry that such a beautiful place has been defiled by our carelessness!

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  6. Belas imagens...Espectacular....
    Cumprimentos

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  7. Uma pena!! aqui no Brasil o descaso com rios poluídos é imenso.
    bj

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  8. A 1/2lb of fish per month is not very much. Scary.

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  9. So sad and this is only one of many places.

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  10. Hi Linda,
    Tried to write back a thank you for your nice comment on my blog, but you are a no-reply blogger.
    I love the Shenandoah and it grieves me to see her damaged. Sigh.

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  11. Although progress has been made in recent years, pollution is still a problem in too many of our rivers and streams.

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  12. Calling by from the Signs meme, that sign about the mercury is rather worrying.

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  13. Oh yes corporations are people in the US, but none of them are in prison. Tom The Backroads Traveller

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