Bogus fish advisory posted at Red Mill Pond

Some time around mid-May, an ominous sign appeared on the shore of Red Mill Pond near Sweetbriar Road near Lewes, warning people the fish in the pond are contaminated with PCBs.

But there is no such advisory for Red Mill Pond, according to state officials and Hudson Management Co., which owns and operates the pond.

The PCB sign does not belong to the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control or the Division of Fish and Wildlife, said DNREC spokesman Michael Globetti. “They don't belong to DNREC, and we could not possibly speculate on who might have put them there,” he said.

The sign's existence was news to Hudson Management managing partner Christian Hudson.

“Obviously this is just speculation, but I'd assume somebody doesn't like people fishing,” he said.

Retired fishery biologist Roy Miller, who lives near the pond, said the sign was complete nonsense.

“There's no such problem in Red Mill Pond,” he said. “There's no source of PCBs for Red Mill Pond.”

Polychlorinated biphenyls, commonly known as PCBs, were once used as coolants and lubricators in electrical equipment, but are no longer produced in the United States. In some cases – and in some Delaware waterways – those chemicals still exist in the environment. But heavy industries that once produced PCBs were never located near Red Mill Pond, Miller said.

According to DNREC's latest water quality report, Red Mill Pond suffers from excess nutrients and low dissolved oxygen, which can lead to algal blooms and difficult conditions for aquatic life. Those impairments do not pose the same public health threats as toxins like PCBs.

The sign has since been removed. Hudson said May 23 he’s aware other similar signs exist around the pond, some of which are on private property.

“There’s more, but I’m not sure where they all are,” he said. “I think it’s pretty sad that somebody would start a complete rumor just to scare people from doing what they’ve been doing for a long time.”