"RALEIGH — Fish in one of North Carolina’s largest watersheds are more polluted by an industrial contaminant than previously reported, and state health officials have failed to expand warnings against eating PCB-contaminated fish, according to a new study."

"After more than a year of research and internal discussions, the state Department of Health and Human Services on Monday released its study of PCB contamination along a stretch of the Yadkin River near a shuttered aluminum smelter that Alcoa Inc. operated for nearly a century.

The study’s release came hours before state environmental officials were scheduled to hold a community meeting Monday evening near the closed smelter to discuss the research.

Environmentalists represented by Duke University law professor Ryke Longest collected data from the study under a public records request.

He wrote State Health Director Laura Gerald two weeks ago, saying the agency has known the breadth of PCB pollution for some time and “has not acted to protect the public health” by expanding warnings against eating fish from two reservoirs in addition to the one where the notice has been posted since 2009."

Emery P. Dalesio reports for the Associated Press May 13, 2013. [2]