'A major victory': It's now safe enough to eat the carp at Utah Lake
by Carter Williams ksl · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- Utah Lake's carp are now safe to eat after PCB levels dropped significantly.
- The Utah Department of Environmental Quality lifted the advisory on carp consumption.
- Efforts to remove carp improved lake health, officials add.
PROVO — Utah Lake's main invasive species is now considered safe enough to eat, which is considered more of an environmental win than a chef's recommendation.
A consumption advisory on the carp in Utah Lake was removed after over two decades on Wednesday, after Utah Department of Environmental Quality testing found that polychlorinated biphenyls levels, manmade organic chemicals commonly referred to as PCBs, were low enough to fall within the safe category.
"This is a major victory for Utah Lake and for everyone who has worked for years to improve its health," said Luke Peterson, executive director of the Utah Lake Authority, adding that it might be the best example yet of how lake health has improved since Geneva Steel ceased operations near the lake shore.
Carp were first introduced to Utah Lake in the 1880s. They've been considered destructive to the lake's native vegetation, while also threatening the June sucker, a fish species endemic to the lake.
PCBs, which are old industrial chemicals consisting of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine atoms that stick around in the environment, likely entered the ecosystem decades after that.
Companies began using them in U.S. manufacturing in 1929, for electrical, paint, plastic, paper and many other products until 1979, when evidence showed they were toxic to human health and the environment, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
PCBs are also notoriously difficult to break down, which kept them in the environment long after they were banned. They ended up in Utah Lake, possibly from runoff from companies like Geneva Steel, which operated a steel mill in Vineyard from 1944 to 2001, where long-living bottom-feeder fish species like carp likely absorbed leftover chemicals, Utah Lake Authority officials explained.
"There are other factors besides Geneva Steel that probably contributed PCBs, but it's the toxic residue that was left behind," Peterson said, noting that it led to many understandable worries over the lake's health.
State officials weren't able to determine an exact source for Utah Lake's PCBs after placing an advisory on carp in 2005. A similar order was also issued over channel catfish, which remains in place despite Wednesday's announcement.
The discovery sparked efforts to clean up the lake, nevertheless. More than 30 million pounds of carp have been removed from the lake since 2010, physically removing "a massive amount of historic pollution" from the lake, Utah Lake Authority officials said.
"(We've) removed a significant amount of PCBs from the ecosystem," said Candice Hasenyager, director of the Utah Division of Water Quality. "The PCB values in carp have fallen more than 80% in the last 20 years. When looking at ways to improve water quality in the lake, most everyone agrees getting rid of carp is at the top of the list."
Division scientists recently caught carp to test fish tissue to see how many PCBs were still in the fish, sending that information to the Utah County Health Department, which led to its decision to lift the advisory.
Utah Lake isn't the only body of water affected by PCBs or other environmental challenges. Hasenyager recommends that anglers use a state website to see where active fish advisories are in place.
The advisory change is a step in the right direction for the lake, Peterson added.
"Maybe you don't want to eat carp, but that's not really the story," he said. "The story is that we have water that is clean, that is safe and (it's) a fun place to recreate."
Efforts to remove carp from Utah Lake, including the "Great Carp Hunt," have also sought to save the June sucker. Former Provo Mayor Michelle Kaufusi even launched an initiative to make Utah Lake carp-free for the 2034 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
Contributing: Shelby Lofton
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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UtahEnvironmentUtah CountyOutdoors
Carter Williams
Carter Williams is a reporter for KSL. He covers Salt Lake City, statewide transportation issues, outdoors, the environment and weather. He is a graduate of Southern Utah University.