USGS Report Calls For Balancing Wetlands' Benefits With Mercury Concerns

Environmental managers should weigh the ecological and water quality benefits of wetland construction and restoration against data that show wetlands promote the conversion of inorganic mercury into methylmercury, a potent neurotoxin that accumulates in fish and other aquatic organisms, a new U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report says. The Oct. 14 report says that while predator fish in one-fourth of the nearly 300 streams sampled contained methylmercury at levels exceeding EPA's fish tissue mercury criterion for the protection of human health,...