DATE: Saturday, September 20, 1997          TAG: 9709200372

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS 

DATELINE: ANNAPOLIS, MD.                    LENGTH:  115 lines

GOVERNORS UNITE TO FIGHT FISH-RAVAGING PFIESTERIA 6 STATES TO SHARE RESEARCH, PRESSURE D.C. FOR ASSISTANCE

Virginia Gov. George Allen and governors from five other Mid-Atlantic states declared an allied front Friday against Pfiesteria piscicida, a microbe blamed for killing fish and causing human illnesses.

The governors of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia vowed to share research and unite to lobby Washington for help in dealing with the organism. The leaders promised to inform each other about reports of dead or dying fish in their rivers with an eye toward combining research and determining what is causing the one-celled organism to go toxic now.

It was the first time governors from several states acknowledged the microbe poses a threat and agreed that concerted efforts to combat it were warranted.

Carol Browner, administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was also on hand at the brief Annapolis meeting, agreeing that federal and state governments must answer the ``clarion call'' to clean up the nation's waterways.

Some scientists believe pfiesteria, a microbe that attacks fish with a potent toxin, may be encouraged by water pollution and farm runoff.

Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening compared pfiesteria-infected waters and the environmental causes with coal miners using canaries to signal the presence of gas in a mine shaft.

``The canary is dying,'' he said. ``We've got to do something about it.''

In recent months, Maryland's lower Eastern Shore has been the site of various reports of fish lesions and fish kills, as well as health problems such as short-term memory loss, respiratory ailments and flu-like symptoms in watermen and residents.

Medical research indicating the illnesses could be linked to the pfiesteria toxin prompted Glendening to close the lower eight miles of the Pocomoke River. Two smaller waterways, tiny Kings Creek and Chicamacomico River, were closed last week soon after fish with lesions were reported.

But in Virginia, where fish lesions have been detected in the Rappahannock River, Allen has kept the river open, saying there have been no reports of human health problems there.

Appearing at the meeting Friday, Allen said his staff will review Maryland's findings on the Pocomoke - the Virginia portion of which Allen did close - but won't make snap decisions on closing the Rappahannock.

``(If my advisers) tell me there is a risk to public health, I'll close a river,'' he said. ``We're trying to make the best judgment we can in protecting the public.''

Also attending the meeting were Delaware Gov. Thomas Carper, who noted pfiesteria has been detected in his state and was blamed for a 1987 fish kill, and West Virginia Gov. Cecil Underwood, whose state has not been affected but is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Governors from North Carolina - where pfiesteria has been blamed in the death of millions of fish in recent years - and Pennsylvania sent representatives to sign the agreement.

On Thursday, Maryland health officials issued a preliminary report on medical and psychological examinations of people who reported severe rashes and flu-like symptoms, as well as memory loss after exposure to rivers where the pfiesteria microbe has been blamed for killing fish.

Based on the complaints of several patients and a series of tests conducted on them and a control group, the medical team called it ``reasonable and prudent to hypothesize a link between pfiesteria toxins and human health effects.''

But Allen said he wanted his own state's experts ``to look it over and see if they come to the same conclusion.'' He added, ``It is too early for me to judge, one way or the other.''

The medical report released by Maryland found serious problems, especially involving memory loss, among several people exposed to tainted waterways in the last few months.

Some people with frequent and prolonged exposure to water in the Pocomoke River scored in the bottom 2 percent of the general population on standard tests of verbal learning and memory, the report said.

``For the physicians obtaining medical histories, the collective impact of reports of acute problems with memory from patient after patient was striking,'' reported the medical team, comprising six doctors who teach at universities in Maryland.

``Events described by patients included some who found themselves driving towards predetermined destinations, unable to recall where they were expected to go, or what they should do on arrival. They described performing activities such as mailing packages, then forgetting they had performed this function.

Those who needed to remember measurements found themselves unable to remember numbers. Numbers longer than five digits presented problems to those who in the past had no difficulties with them. Others noted that they could not remember to bring routine equipment on board boats, finding themselves on the water, without required supplies. Such events were incomprehensible to those who had never before been confronted with such experiences.''

Despite the threat from pfiesteria, Glendening said health and environmental officials agree that seafood and fish taken from the Chesapeake Bay watershed are healthful and safe.

To make the point, the governors lunched on Maryland crab cakes.

JoAnn Burkholder, a North Carolina State University researcher who is the nation's leading expert on pfiesteria, briefed the governors on the behavior of the organism - describing how it attacks schools of fish and eats away at their skins and blood.

The governors said they want the federal government to put together a process for responding quickly to reports of pfiesteria outbreaks, as well as offer financial and technical help to the states in studying the problem.

Browner said she will work to coordinate those efforts.

MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press and

The New York Times. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Virginia Gov. George Allen, left, speaks during the Regional

Conference on pfiesteria, along with Maryland Gov. Parris

Glendening. KEYWORDS: PFIESTERIA

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