Mercury

Water Quality | Mercury

Methylmercury Criteria for Fish Tissue

EPA published criteria to protect human health from methylmercury in 2001. The fish tissue residue criterion is 0.3 mg methylmercury/kg fish, which is the concentration in fish tissue that should not be exceeded based on a total fish and shellfish consumption-weighted rate of 0.0175 kg fish/day.

More information can be found in the Methylmercury Criteria Document.

The EPA strongly encourages states and authorized tribes to develop a water quality criterion for methylmercury using local or regional data rather than the default values if they believe that such a water quality criterion would be more appropriate for their target population.

Currently, Maine is the only NEIWPCC state to adopt a methylmercury criterion for fish tissue in their waters. The standard was set at 0.2 mg methylmercury/kg fish. More information can be found in the Development of Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Mercury Document.

For more information about mercury, contact Susy King, our mercury coordinator.