Posted: May 27, 2014 10:19 PM GDT
Updated: May 27, 2014 10:26 PM GDT
Posted By Brianna Owczarzak - email
By Craig McMorris, TV5 Anchor/Reporter
A Mid-Michigan community that was the site of the costliest Environmental Protection Agency cleanup in history once again has the attention of environmentalists.
Volunteers are being trained on how to deal with birds contaminated with the pesticide DDT.
Michigan State University wildlife toxicology professor Matt Zwiernik outlined to a couple of volunteers what they need to do when they come across dead birds in St. Louis.
Last year some robins and other birds found in residential yards near the buried Velsicol Chemical plant site died from DDT poisoning. They think the DDT originated from that plant.
"We collected 28 birds and I think 27 of them had concentrations in their brains greater than a 100 [parts per million] which is considered the threshold for adverse effects," Zwiernik said.
Now the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality wants to gather as many dead birds as possible.
The volunteers are vital. They need to get out and find these dead birds before predators get a hold of them.
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