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mercury levels...not sure if anyone else seen this

1696 Views 7 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Bird (this time)
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Wow thanks for posting. I fish at Draper often. I know Gauge fishes Elmer Thomas often.
Elmer Thomas and the refuge lakes have been posted for Mercury for as long as I can remember.
I have somewhat of an issue with the "mercury" thing.
I do stack emissions testing for a big Okla Utility as part of my job.
Two years ago, the EPA came out with a ruling that said "mercury" was an issue, and by a certain date, all coal plants would be required to monitor and controll the "mercury emissons".
We spent millions of dollars putting in testing systems, and monitoring the emissions, reporting them along with the people that manufacture the equipment.
After two years, the EPA, abandoned the quest as the emissions were so low as to not be an issue.

Then all of a sudden, we come out with these new guidelines.
Where is the mercury coming from?? It can't be from Coal plants, or else Keystone at Tulsa is not involved?? They are directly down stream from Kaw???
If Kaw is a Drop-out (carried in the river current and dropped out and retained in the lake) where is it coming from??

I need to obtain a copy of the ruling, as it was stated the testing was going on for two years previous to now??
If blues from Kaw are so deadly to eat, when are the people eating them all of the time (me) going to die from mecury poisoning?? there are set medical limits of how much the human body can absorb, retain and then die.
I haven't seen these posted, and I've been looking really hard.


So let me think about this another way....the Blues and sandbass in kaw can't be eaten, but there is no warning for those caught below the dam, or any where below the dam in the river??

I'm starting to smell rotten fish.......


Lakes such as Oologah and Sooner are situated near power plants in other parts of the state and had low mercury levels.
Imagine that.......a lake that has a coal plant on the property has a low mercury content.
Guess where sooner lake gets it water to keep it full?
Kaw lake. Sooner doesn't not have any natural runoff. All of the water in Sooner is pumped from the Arkansas river which is down stream from Kaw lake.
I'm still having a problem about this??
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exactly that kinda what i was thinkin i dont eat anything directly out of kaw but out of the river below it. sooner pumps water out of the river and tests fine. its all falling out in the lake that comes in in the current. thats where its coming from i guess.
If, and I'm saying If, and can't prove it, if there is any mercury in Kaw, it had to come from the old Total Petroleum property in Arkansas City. Walnut Creek runs right through it, and dumps into Kaw Lake.
I ain't sayin, but it sounds plausible to me.
I don' eat the fish from the- Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.
Like Fish mentioned the lake have been post for many years know...They all per say are for Black Bass.
Don't remember where I read this but, one study found that mercury is naturally occuring in a lot of the land in eastern Oklahoma. It's not pollution, it's just in that area naturally.
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