Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Understanding the Cumulative Affects of Environmental and Psycho-Social Stressors that Threaten the Pohlik-lah and Ner-er-ner Lifeway: The Yurok Tribe’s Approach
EPA Grant Number: R833708Title: Understanding the Cumulative Affects of Environmental and Psycho-Social Stressors that Threaten the Pohlik-lah and Ner-er-ner Lifeway: The Yurok Tribe’s Approach
Investigators: Sloan, Kathleen , Steinberg, Steven J , Steinberg, Sheila , Fluharty, Suzanne
Institution: Yurok Tribe Environmental Program , Humboldt State University
EPA Project Officer: Aja, Hayley
Project Period: July 1, 2008 through December 31, 2012 (Extended to December 31, 2013)
Project Amount: $974,389
RFA: Issues in Tribal Environmental Research and Health Promotion: Novel Approaches for Assessing and Managing Cumulative Risks and Impacts of Global Climate Change (2007) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Environmental Justice , Climate Change , Tribal Environmental Health Research , Human Health
Objective:
This project sought to gather data from multiple individual components that together would represent the aggregate or combined community-wide exposure and partial quantification of the combined risks to the public health of Yurok Tribal Members, their subsistence resources, and the environment of their Ancestral Territory. In general, the project’s goal was to assess the cumulative effects of environmental stressors that threaten the health of Tribal Members, adversely affect the traditional Yurok subsistence lifeway and by association, Yurok culture. Combined with previous and ongoing studies on the decline of subsistence resources and of the Klamath fishery, these data were used to inform the Tribal Council, tribal and local community members, resource managers, partner agencies, and entities that work for a restored Klamath watershed.
Four primary research questions were identified:
- What are the chemical stressors known to be used in the Klamath River watershed, their pathways, and known adverse health outcomes associated with those chemical stressors and contaminants?
- What contaminants are currently detectable in the river and key aquatic subsistence resources?
- Is there a relationship between environmental health as reflected by resource health and community health?
- How can this study and the data produced from this study be used to identify and reduce risk and improve tribal member and resource health?
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
First, this project compiled potential chemical/toxin contaminants that might contribute as risk factors to humans in the project’s research area and then sought to correlate them with established negative health outcomes within the Tribal Membership. Outcomes include:
- The reasonable expectation that at least some of the naturally occurring high mineral content of the geologic background of the Yurok Territory, combined with the steep slope topography and heavy rainfall allows the bedrock to be potentially eroded and transported into both ground and surface waters and potentially transferred to the local biota. Of the minerals included for laboratory analysis, those with detection levels of concern include fresh water mussels with 557 ppb of manganese; sturgeon skin with 20 ppb of chromium; and aluminum in the Spring flows of Klamath River water with detections peaking at 217 ppb, well above double the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Aquatic Life Protection Criteria of 87 ppb.
- In general, the Yurok Reservation experiences clean air throughout the majority of the year due to limited industrial releases, and regulated parameters generally fall below the national averages; however, a principal threat to air quality exists in emissions from burning. These emissions in residential areas primarily consist of wood stoves and open burning of yard and household wastes; however, the recurring, excessive particulate releases from wildfires have the greatest potential as contributing factors to at least some of the adverse health effects reported.
- Regional impacts from anthropogenic activities include the 303(d) listing for impairment of the Kalmath Reiver in both temperature and nutrients, with the subsequent production of blue-green algae’s toxin microcystin. Routine surface water monitoring data document detections of microcystins on average 7 weeks each year, during the last 5 years (2009-2013) exceeded levels above which adverse health effects could occur through incidental recreational exposure levels set by California Environmental Protection Agency, California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), and California's Office of Environmental Health and Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). Water testing during this project utilized an equal interval, integrated depth method to characterize toxin levels present in a cross section of the entire river column and supplement and substantiate that microcystin levels exceeded California’s Recommended Action Level 0f 0.8 μg/L at all three sites sampled during September and October of 2010 with detections of 2.9, 1.66, and 1.61 μg/L. In addition to the risk of microcystin exposure in the Klamath River surface waters, this project’s tissue sampling demonstrates the potential that consumption of the traditional subsistence food, freshwater mussels had detections of 64.2 ng/g of microcystin-LA that has the potential to add to the cumulative total toxic burden of microcystins that Tribal members may experience through an ingestion pathway.
- Tissue testing of more than 220 toxins and metabolites from 12 broad families/categories that were targeted in this project for laboratory analysis of subsistence species and Klamath River water returned positive results for biotoxins, dioxins, organochlorines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pyrethroids, and trace metals. These add to the cumulative impacts to Tribal Members through the ingestion exposure route. In general, detections were low with exceptions to five contaminant groups below that exceed current public health or water quality criteria limits:
- Microcystins in Fall flows of Klamath River water and fresh water mussels;
- Total PAHs in four species (Fall run Chinook salmon, Coho, lamprey, and razor clams);
- PCBs in whale blubber (comparing it to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) levels in red meat);
- Pesticide residue in whale blubber (comparing it to FDA levels in red meat); and
- Select trace metals (aluminum in Klamath River Spring flows and manganese in fresh water mussels).
- In total, 2,677 Yurok enrolled members’ health records and diagnoses that were reported in the United Indian Health Service data during a single 5-year window were searched for occurrences and rates of specific adverse health outcomes associated with known contaminants and toxins present in the Yurok Ancestral Territory. While no direct link between contaminant exposure and occupancy due to patient confidentiality can be made, this project represents 98% of the local bi-county, Yurok population and gives a comprehensive and representational snap shot of the local Yurok Tribal Members’ health at the community level. As reported in the project’s stand-alone brochure, The Yurok Community Environmental Health Profile, Tribal members are potentially being impacted by four adverse health outcomes that have indications of being above national rates.
- Overall cancer rate was greater than three times the national rate for other American Indians/Alaskan Natives (AIAN) and 40% greater than the rate for all races combined;
- Diabetes rates were comparable to other AIAN national rates that are approximately three times the general population;
- Proteinuria, often a precursor of chronic kidney disease, was found at rates over double the national average; and
- Perinatal outcomes of spontaneous abortion and fetal malformation were great enough to be of concern to the epidemiological research staff but there is no consensus in the perinatal field as to when spontaneous abortion, miscarriage, or stillbirth should be used for diagnosis coding. This makes comparisons with National data impossible due to data inconsistencies.
Conclusions:
Data gathered in this project document complete exposure pathways of multiple environmental toxins and contaminants and as such, indicate that exposure to the contaminants has occurred in the past, is presently occurring, or will likely occur in the future as contributors and sources of risk to the general Yurok Tribal Membership. Although the true or actual risk is unknown and although unlikely, could be as low as zero, as well as the knowledge that the identification of a completed exposure pathway does not immediately imply health effects will occur, this project provides evidence that environmental contaminants and toxins are likely contributing to documented adverse health effects in the Yurok Tribal Membership. Furthermore, while the rates of the health outcomes of the Yurok Tribal Members cannot be definitively established within the scope of this project, their documented adverse diagnoses demonstrate the need for further studies of local Yurok Tribal members’ health, links to local environmental contaminants, and the potentially disparate burden of disease and ill health within the Yurok Community living in Del Norte and Humboldt Counties.
In conclusion, this project met its objectives and answered the research questions regarding the environmental health of the Yurok Ancestral Territory and potential impacts to Tribal Members’ health through the gathering of multiple levels of data inquiry. We met the goal of developing and disseminating public outreach materials that may benefit the Tribal Council, tribal members, and subsistence practitioners in general to be informed of, make personal decisions for, and minimize risk from environmental contaminants within their Ancestral Territory, especially in regards to their ingestion of subsistence species. Furthermore, additional benefits of this project’s research include:
- Improvement in the overall understanding of tribal and subsistence risk assessments and a demonstrated need for improvements to the standard risk paradigm to effectively represent and protect Tribal Members’ public health.
- Development of two ecotoxicologic tools that integrate with ArcGIS technologies and allow quick analysis and possible solutions to environmental problem through the use of previously diverse and incompatible data sets.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 17 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
Microcystis, microcystin, contaminants, pesticides, diabetes, cancer, endocrine disruptors, flame retardants, PBDEs, PCBs, DDT, dioxins and furans, PAHs, organophosphates, mercury, methyl mercury, metals, salmon, surf fish, Pacific lamprey, freshwater mussels, coastal mussels, clams, seaweed green sturgeon, steelhead, Yurok Tribe, Pohlik-lah and Ner-er-ner, community-based participatory research, subsistence resources, Klamath River, Pacific Coast, bioaccumulation, California Rural Indian Health Board, Tribal Epidemiology Center, Community Health Profile, United Indian Health Service, GIS, risk assessmentRelevant Websites:
Yurok Tribe Environmental Program Department Webpage, Community and Ecosystem Division, Reports and Documents Link to: Yurok Tribe EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) 2008-2012:
EPA STAR Yurok Quality Assurance Project Plan (PDF) Exit
EPA STAR Yurok Tribe Tier 1 Tissue Samping Results Poster (PDF) Exit
EPA STAR CRIHB TEC Yurok Tribe Community Health Profile (PDF) Exit
Nue-ne-pueh, Resource Health Report 2010-2012 Poster (Yurok Tribe Environmental Program 2013) (PDF) Exit
Nue-ne-pueh: Resource Health Report, Results from Tissue Sampling Brochure (Yurok Tribe Environmental Program 2013) Exit
Yurok Community Environmental Health Profile 2004-2011 (California Tribal Epidemiology Center 2012) (PDF) Exit
Yurok Tribe Webpage: YTEP Studies Ten Traditional Foods. Yurok Today: The Voice of the Yurok People. February 2014 Edition; p 6-7 (PDF) Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
- 2013 Progress Report
- 2012 Progress Report
- 2011 Progress Report
- 2010 Progress Report
- 2009 Progress Report
- 2008 Progress Report
- Original Abstract