Mercury Concentrations in Migratory Waterfowl Harvested from Southern Nevada Wildlife Management Areas

In the state of Nevada, large bodies of water that are used by migratory waterfowl are few and well defined. Many of these resting areas for waterfowl have been identified and protected by the state in the form of Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs). Unfortunately, several of these WMAs are located very close to an existing Superfund site at the Carson River. The Carson River site is listed on the National Priority List (CERCLIS ID: NVD980813646) because of elevated concentrations of mercury. The mercury contamination is a remnant of precious-metal mining using extraction techniques which have since been banned in the United States. Both fish and wildlife consumption advisories have been posted for this area, and previous investigations of migratory waterfowl demonstrated the potential to exceed 1 ppm mercury in certain tissues, the currently recommended consumption advisory level (Tuttle et al 1996). However, it is unclear if migratory waterfowl harvested in the southern portions of Nevada still contain elevated concentrations of mercury. Hence, the overall objectives of this study were:

1. to determine the concentrations of mercury in different species of migratory waterfowl harvested from southern Nevada Wildlife Management Areas;
2. to evaluate the relationship between muscle and liver mercury concentrations in these same species;
3. to identify the individual species that have the highest mercury concentrations and evaluate their suitability as bioindicators for exposure.

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