Valerie Craven’s scientific contributions

The potential human health risks associated with consuming fish containing hazardous substances are related to the frequency, duration, and magnitude of exposure. Because these risk factors are often site specific, they require site-specific data. In anticipation of performing a risk assessment of the lower 6 miles of the Passaic River in New Jersey (Study Area), a year-long creel/angler survey collected such site-specific data. The lower Passaic River is urbanized and industrialized, and its site conditions present unique survey design and sampling challenges. For example, the combined population of the municipalities surrounding the Study Area is nearly 330,000, but because the Study Area is tidal, state law does not require fishing licenses for anglers to fish or crab in the Study Area. The sampling challenges posed by the lack of licensing are exacerbated by the industrialization and lack of public access in the lower half of the Study Area. This article presents a survey methodology designed to overcome these challenges to provide data for accurately estimating the Study Area's angling population and the fish and crabs they catch, keep, and eat. In addition to addressing the challenges posed by an urban and industrial setting, the survey methodology also addresses the issues of coverage, avidity, and deterrence, issues necessary for collecting a representative sample of the Study Area's anglers. This article is a companion to two other articles. The first companion article describes the analytical methodology designed to process the data collected during the survey. The second presents, validates, and interprets the survey results relating to human exposure factors for the lower Passaic River.

This article describes a unique analytical method employed to characterize angler activities on the lower 6-mile stretch of the Passaic River in New Jersey. The method used data collected by a creel/angler survey that was designed to capture the information necessary to calculate the exposure factors needed to characterize the fish consumption pathway for recreational anglers in a human health risk assessment for the river. The survey used two methods to address the challenges of conducting a creel/angler survey in an urban and industrial setting with limited river access. While unique, the analytical method described in this article is based upon accepted methods of interpreting survey data and basic laws of probability. This article was written as a companion to two other articles, also in this issue and cited here, of which one describes in detail the survey methodology designed for the lower Passaic River creel/angler survey to meet various challenges unique to conducting such a survey in urban and industrialized rivers, and the other presents, validates, and interprets the results of the lower Passaic River work relating to human exposure factors using the methodology described in this article.

The results of an analysis of site-specific creel and angler information collected for the lower 6 miles of the Passaic River in Newark, NJ (Study Area), demonstrate that performing a site-specific creel/angler survey was essential to capture the unique characteristics of the anglers using the Study Area. The results presented were developed using a unique methodology for calculating site-specific, human exposure estimates from data collected in this unique urban/industrial setting. The site-specific human exposure factors calculated and presented include (1) size of angler population and fish-consuming population, (2) annual fish consumption rate, (3) duration of anglers' fishing careers, (4) cooking methods for the fish consumed, and (5) demographic information. Sensitivity and validation analyses were performed, and results were found to be useful for performing a site-specific, human health risk assessment. It was also concluded that site-specific exposure factor values are preferable to less representative "default values." The results of the analysis showed that the size of the angling population at the Study Area is estimated to range from 154 to 385 anglers, based on different methods of matching intercepts with anglers. Thirty-four anglers were estimated to have consumed fish; 37 people consumed fish from the river. The fish consumption rate for anglers using this area was best represented as 0.42 g/day for the central tendency and 1.8 g/day for the 95th percentile estimates. Anglers fishing at the river have relatively short fishing careers with a median of 0.9 yr, an average of 1.5 yr, and a 95th percentile of 4.8 yr. Consuming anglers tend to fry the fish they caught. The demographics of anglers who consume fish do not appear to differ substantially from those who do not, with no indication of a subsistence angling population.

A Creel/Angler Survey (CAS) was conducted to provide site-specific information on recreational fishing in the lower six miles of the Passaic River (Study Area). Information collected during the CAS will be used to develop site-specific exposure factors, including fish consumption rates, for use in the human health risk assessment required by an Administrative Order on Consent as part of the Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study for the Study Area. An expert panel was convened to provide an independent opinion regarding the need for, design of, and implementation of the CAS. The expert panel was charged with evaluating whether the conduct of a CAS is necessary to support an accurate risk assessment for the Study Area and whether the proposed CAS is sufficient to characterize local fish consumption behavior for risk assessment purposes. The expert panel agreed that a CAS is necessary and concluded that the proposed CAS, with specific modifications to the study design and data analysis, would provide the information necessary to estimate site-specific fish consumption rates. Revision of the CAS to accommodate the expert panel recommendations enhanced the quality of the data collected and ensured that the data will support the assessment of human health risks from consumption of fish from the Study Area.