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Officials to conduct land crab sampling again
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Posted on Nov 29 2000
Federal and local agencies will begin gathering land crab samples on Dec. 11, 2000 as part of an in-depth study to determine the extent of polychlorinated biphenyl contamination.
Division of Environmental Quality Director Ignacio V. Cabrera said a workplan will be drafted by both the local and federal agency representatives.
Aside from DEQ, other agencies involved are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Public Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. The community will be represented by the Tanapag Action Group in the survey.
EPA and ATSDR have chosen five locations for the land crab sampling to get a more diverse population.
Three sites will be along the Tanapag beach area, one near the wetland area in the Middle Road and one in south of Garapan , possibly San Jose, to serve as control area.
ATSDR and a panel of experts will still have to determine the number of land crabs that will be collected to have a meaningful statistical data.
DPH has asked the people to refrain from eating land crabs caught in Tanapag area after preliminary sampling results showed that five of the eight land crabs surveyed were found contaminated with PCB.
While PCB levels in the land crabs are below the standard established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for fish, public health officials decided to issue the advisory as a precautionary measure.
The preliminary land crab consumption advisory issued by DPH was based on very limited and preliminary sampling results on land crabs caught in Tanapag village, in and around the vicinity of Cemetery 2, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
DPH said the advisory will remain until such time that the results from a more extensive sampling are available.
The land crabs taken were among the samples of food gathered last May 2000 by EPA representatives as part of the assessment on food and the environment in the village. (LFR)
