Poisoning Flipper: Chemicals Flushed in Chicago Wreak Havoc on Dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico

The Chicago Tribune had a chilling reminder about the broad reach of water pollution this week. It seems that toxic chemicals from the metal plating process are getting flushed into the sewers here in Chicago, fortifying our wastewater with even more carcinogenic yumminess.

As Michael Hawthorne’s article details, perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) and a range of other associated chemicals are dangerous not only because they have nasty impacts on human health; but also because once they are discharged into streams and lakes, they hang out for a long time. Andrew Wetzler noted in a strong Switchboard post:

Well, PFCs are one of several “persistent organic pollutants” or “POPs”--which also includes chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chlordanes (CHL), DDT and its metabolites, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)--that don’t readily degrade in the natural environment.  As Hawthorne notes, because POPs are so long lasting, once they are emitted into the air or the water they move around, and a lot of them end up in the Arctic.  They also tend to bioaccumulate.  That is, concentrations of POPs are higher in animals as one moves up the food chain from, for example, fish, to seals, to things that eat seals.  And what eats seals?  Polar bears.

Read his post. There’s ton of scientific literature out there on the impact this stuff, along with Teflon and Scotchguard, is having on the people and creatures to the north.

And from my previous gig, I can tell you it spreads to the south too.

The Chicago example is pretty illustrative here…and highlights some of the many gripes we have about this region’s water infrastructure (have you read about Asian carp or the decontamination issues?). Waste water around here gets flushed into the Chicago River and eventually makes its way through the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico.

In the Gulf, just like up north, it ends up accumulating in the fatty tissue of top predators. In this case, bottlenose dolphins. That’s right, Chicago’s chemical slop poisons Flipper.

Before starting at NRDC, I worked for the Chicago Zoological Society (they run Brookfield Zoo) and had the pleasure of regular interactions with Dr. Randy Wells---a scholar so respected for his knowledge of cetaceans that a children’s book about him was entitled “Dolphin Man.” Through the Society’s Dolphin Research and Conservation Institute, he runs the world’s longest-running study of a wild dolphin population from Sarasota Bay, Florida where he has observed the resident dolphins for 40 years.

Early on in his study, he noticed that first-born dolphin calves in the area have a much higher mortality rate than successive generations. Why? Well, a process called “depuration” moves 80% of those persistent organic pollutants out of momma dolphin’s fatty tissue and into the milk she uses to feed her newborn. Inadvertantly, she is giving the first calf a toxic shotof stuff like DDT, PCBs, and PFCs.  It's not the only factor that reduces that first calf’s chance of survival, but it’s a big part of the mix.

And it’s a real reminder about how broad the impact of our pollution can go.

Dolphin photo courtesty of Chicago Zoological Society.