fish bioaccumulate the toxin in the food chain
The zoo plankton consumes the selenium out of the water and then gets eaten by small fish and or minnow which in turn get eaten by larger fish. By the time we humans eat the fish there is a lot more selenium in the fish tissue and it gets into our bodies in larger quantities than if you just drink the water containing the small amounts of the selenium. That's why the fish consumption warning are important to read about.
We have a lake here IN Southern IN that has the same problem. It's a cooling pond lake for Gibson Power plant and it was closed to fishing a while back due to the built up of selenium in the water and fish life. The larger and older the fish the more selenium it may have in it's body.
I studied Biochemistry at Purdue University one semester and we had to collect different field mice and then dissect the different organs out of the mice and test the organs for DDT or PCBs. The PhD Professor ran the study and reported the results and we students did the grunt work for him and for our class grade. I think he found that different organs contained different amounts of the DDT. The liver was one organ that probably contained the most DDT of all the organs. The brains and hearts the least amount of DDT. But there was some DDT found though out the body.
A fish will probably accumulate the selenium in their livers and other organs and fatty tissues. But they may not deposit as much in the muscle tissue where the fillets come from. It all depends on the fish species and what they eat. But if they say not to eat the fish then I would move to another lake to fish. Why take on extra body toxins if you can avoid it. You younger kids may think you are invincible but when you get older you may regret not listening and avoiding all the toxin you can. The government won't try to scare you and in fact they are very reluctant to notify people about problems that can be blamed on the politicians. And businesses are even worst about notifying the public about the amount of pollution they put in the air an water. That's a highly kept secret if they can help it. The Government requires them to make reports but they don't double check the data and depend on the business to police it self. That's not always a good idea unless the Government makes unannounced spot inspections and does smoke stack test to confirm the data. Some companies hire 3rd party labs to test the air and water for them and the private labs report the data back to the company directly. Only then does the company turn that data over to the government. And you can bet if you give the company too many reports that can get them into trouble they may not hire your 3rd party company ever again and get someone else to do that job. I've been there and done that. I worked for an environmental lab and did testing on various companies for them. I worked with the USEPA hazardous Pollutants such as lead, mercury and asbestos which are all NESHAPS type pollutant that companies are required to control. I remember our Atomic Absorption Analyzer operator, Jeff Cleek, (Chemist from USI) worked with water samples from various companies. Mostly the coal companies in the area that had open pit mines and had to drill test wells and have the well water sampled and tested on a quarterly or semi annual basis. We did that work for the coal companies and selenium was one of the parameter Jeff tested for in those water sample. Jeff is a fisherman too. So he probably knows where the most contaminates are located as he did that job for a while before he moved on to a better and bigger job for his rich uncle. Black Beauty Coal Company Owner, Steven Chancellor. Core Laboratories did work for Peabody coal too. Tim Steiner was our salesman and he passed away from colon cancer last year. Tim was a good guy and so was Jeff. Both were scientist. Tim was a geologist and as I said Jeff had his degree in Chemistry from USI. Jeff had a near photographic memory and Tim was very smart too.
[QUOTE=Wormin;560390]Danville intake pipes for water is just around the corner, think I will start buying bottle water. Let's worrie about the fish but not the people who drink it or bath in it.[/QUOTE]