Summary

Description

The Fish and Wildlife Service Service has identified the bottomland hardwoods of the Lower Mississippi River Delta as one of the highest Service priorities for waterfowl habitat within the United States. The Cache River National Wildlife Refuge CRR has been recognized as a high value basin in the Mississippi Delta for wintering migratory waterfowl. The Cache River Basin is subject to agricultural runoff from upstream and surrounding farmlands. Even though the use of organochlorine OC pesticides has drastically declined, these compounds have a slow rate of decomposition. It is therefore essential to analyze fish samples to determine if agricultural runoff is impacting the resources on the Cache River Refuge. Each fish sampling site. exceeded the 85 percentile for copper and mercury. All concentrations of chromium from the sampling sites were below EPA recommended levels for fish tissue concentrations. Additional studies should be conducted to determine possible sources of the inorganic and organic contaminants found on and near the CRR in order to control their release and controlreduce possible contamination of the Services trust resources, particularly fish eating migratory birds.