Because of high levels of pollutants and overfishing, the sturgeon had long disappeared from the northern part of the Genesee River that empties into Lake Ontario.

But many of the 1,900 sturgeon that were put into this stretch of the Genesee beginning in 2003 seem to have done well — a sign, federal and local officials say, that cleanup efforts are starting to pay off.

Now, a $308,000 federal grant to the University of Rochester will fund a study conducted over the next three years that takes blood samples from the fish to determine the concentration of various pollutants.

“The goal of this study, through the Great Lakes grant, is to provide the data to support delisting Rochester’s embayment as an EPA area of concern,” said Rep Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, at a news conference Monday at the Port of Rochester. Slaughter is co-chair of the Bicameral Great Lakes Task Force.

The Rochester embayment is an area that includes the last six miles of the Genesee River, beginning at the lower falls, and extends along the Lake Ontario coast from Parma to Webster. It’s one of 30 “areas of concern” that are in or near the Great Lakes in the United States or in parts of the Great Lakes shared with Canada.

This list of “toxic hot spots” was established in 1987, said Cameron Davis, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency senior adviser who attended Monday’s news conference in Rochester.

The tests will be conducted for UR by Axys Analytical Services in British Columbia, Canada, said Dr. Jeff Wyatt, chairman of the Department of Comparative Medicine at UR.

Scientists will compare contaminant levels in the sturgeon from the Genesee with sturgeon in the Oswegatchie River, which is not considered a toxic hot spot and enters the St. Lawrence River at Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence County.

State officials no longer permit fishing for sturgeon. Blood samples taken from these fish, however, are a good indicator of pollutants because they feed off the bottom of the river, where pollutants settle.

Tests will be conducted to detect levels of mercury, silver, dioxins and furans, which are produced by burning coal, mirex (which was used as a flame retardant and pesticide), and PCBs, which are chemicals once widely used as insulators in transformers.

In the future, Wyatt said, tests could be performed on pollutants of emerging concern, which include medications that are not filtered out in the treatment of wastewater.

Scientists believe that better controls on what industries can discharge and more controls over agricultural runoff have helped reduce levels of pollution.

The study is one of 11 funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan. Progress must also be shown in other areas, such as preventing habitation degradation and increased fish reproduction to get rid of the “area of concern” designation.

But Wyatt considers the return of the sturgeon a promising sign. “They’re the best ambassadors for water quality,” he said.

via UR receives grant to study pollution in river | Democrat and Chronicle | democratandchronicle.com.