Will Wilson - Duke University

Wainwright, David
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To whom it may concern:
Will Wilson <wgw @duke.edu>
Thursday, April 03, 2014 11:46 AM
Bashaw, Justin P SAW
William Wilson
[EXTERNAL] SolarBee comments
I'm writing to oppose the use of SolarBees in Jordan Lake. One problem with the reservoir is high mercury levels is fish
tissues, documented by the EPA's 2000 -2004 US Lake Study:
http: // water .epa.gov /scitech /swguidance /fishstudies /lakefishtissue index.cfm
The SolarBee installation, designed to reduce algal blooms, ignores several recent studies that indicate that algal blooms
dilute the mercury that makes its way up the trophic levels to game fish. Several of those studies are cited below. If the
SolarBee installation succeeds, then we can anticipate that Jordan Lake's mercury levels will exceed EPA advisory levels.
Thank you,
Will Wilson
Assoc. Prof. of Ecology
Duke University
Chen, C.Y., and C.L. Folt. 2005.
High Plankton Densities Reduce Mercury Biomagnification.
Environ. Sci. Technol. 39: 115 -121.
Chen, C.Y., R.S. Stemberger, N.C. Kamman, B.M. Mayes, and C.L. Folt. 2005.
Patterns of Hg Bioaccumulation and Transfer in Aquatic Food Webs Across Multi -lake Studies in the Northeast US.
Ecotoxicology 14: 135 -147.
Chen, C.Y., N. Serrell, D.C. Evers, B.J. Fleishman, K.F. Lambert, J.
Weiss, R.P.\ Mason and M.S. Bank. 2008.
Methylmercury in Marine Ecosystems: From Sources to Seafood Consumers Environmental Health Perspectives 116:
1706 -1712.
Pickhardt, P.C., C.L. Folt, C.Y. Chen, B. Klaue and J.D. Blum. 2002.
Algal Blooms Reduce the Uptake of Toxic Methylmercury in Freshwater Food Webs.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99:4419 -4423.
Watras, C.J., K.A. Morrison, J.S. Host, and N.S. Bloom. 1995.
Concentration of Mercury Species in Relationship to Other Site - Specific Factors in the Surface Waters of Northern
Wisconsin Lakes.
Limnology and Oceanography 40: 556 -565.
Watras, C.J., R.C. Back, S. Halvorsen, R.J.M. Hudson, K.A. Morrison, and
S.P. Wente. 1998.
Bioaccumulation of mercury in pelagic freshwater food webs.
The Science of the Total Environment 219: 183 -208.

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