Fish Consumption Advisory

Over time, heavy metals and pesticides that erode or leach into open bodies of water can accumulate inside the tissues of the fish occupying those waters.

Each year, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) surveys the fish populations in many bodies of water across the state to determine the degree to which different fish might be contaminated by hazardous chemicals or heavy metals. In particular, they watch for the presence of four known carcinogens—chlordane, dieldrin, heptachlor epoxide, and PCB—and methyl mercury, which have been shown to exist in elevated levels in some fish populations statewide. When high levels of any of these substances are detected in a waterway's fish population, DNR issues a Fish Consumption Advisory. The advisory alerts consumers to the level of contamination that has been detected and provides maximum recommended consumption rates for the contaminated fish.

In the past, a number of different fish from Lake Springfield have been included in DNR's Fish Consumption Advisory. However, a steady decline in chemical contamination levels in the lake as a whole gradually reduced both the number of fish included in the Advisory and the severity of the risk posed by their consumption. Currently, there is no specific consumption advisory in effect for any fish caught in Lake Springfield. However, Lake Springfield falls under a general state-wide methyl mercury advisory aimed at children and women of child-bearing years. These individuals tend to be more at risk for the effects of the heavy metal, which can be found in varying levels in many predator fish. Because even a small amount of methyl mercury has the potential to cause developmental and other significant damage to a fetus or child, the State of Illinois recommends that children under age 15 and women who are or may become pregnant  eat no more than one meal per week of predator fish from any source. Persons not in these two groups can safely eat as many meals as they wish of predator fish caught in Lake Springfield. Predator fish include all species of black bass (largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted), striped bass, white bass, hybrid striped bass, walleye, sauger, saugeye, flathead catfish, muskellunge, and northern pike.