New Job For Buffalo Riverkeeper - Warning Immigrants Of Dangers Of Eating Fish They Catch
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This summer, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy organization, is spearheading an extensive campaign to educate Buffalo’s growing immigrant population on the dangers of eating fish caught in polluted waters.
“They eat fish without knowing the complicated and long industrial history of the Buffalo Niagara region,” said Nicole Lipp, communications manager for Riverkeeper, which is dedicated to protecting and restoring area waterways. “We began this outreach when we learned that many refugees who came to Western New York practiced subsistence fishing.”
Ba Zan Lin coordinates Environmental Justice, the name given to the community outreach program. On a daily basis, he and others from Riverkeeper visit area fishing holes like Broderick Park, Squaw Island and the foot of Hamburg Street on the Buffalo River to talk with immigrants who fish. Lin, who turned 26 Sunday, spent his first 18 years in Burma and is fluent in several Burmese dialects. “A lot of Burmese who come here see a waterway, and it looks clean,” Lin said. “They assume the waters and the fish in them are clean even though they are not. That’s how I became aware of the issues.”
Much of Western New York’s abundant water supply – Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the Niagara and Buffalo rivers – contains fish with potentially harmful levels of chemical contaminants, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which routinely monitors contaminant levels in fish, and the state Department of Health, which issues advisories on eating sport fish.
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http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20130804%2FCITYANDREGION%2F130809673%2F1010
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