CENTRE — When Carolyn Landrem got her hands on a copy of the state's latest fish advisory report earlier this month, it didn't take her long to determine that, in her opinion, the 20-page document was poorly composed and actually asked more questions than it answered.

“I just don't think this is a good representative study of the lake,” said Landrem, president of the Weiss Lake Improvement Association. “It's not user-friendly and it doesn't serve its purpose.”

The report, titled “2011 Fish Consumption Advisories” was issued Aug. 8 by the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) based on data collected last fall by the state Department of Environmental Management (ADEM).

The report begins by stating that the quality of rivers and lakes in Alabama, “based upon levels of contaminants in fish … generally continues improvements made in recent years.”

But Landrem said the report contains shortcomings, chief among them ADEM's choice of test sites used to gather information on over 30 possible contaminants in fish, including mercury, pesticides and PCBs.

“You cannot take two samples, one at the Georgia-Alabama line and another at the dam, and get an accurate overview of the condition of Weiss Lake,” she said.

The report cautioned that catfish caught near Weiss Dam may contain enough PCBs to affect someone's health over their lifetime.

The report also advised that striped bass caught near Weiss Dam should be consumed in small amounts, about one six-ounce serving per month. Young children and women of child-bearing age were cautioned that catfish or striped bass around Weiss Dam also contained slight levels of PCBs.

There were no restrictions on any species of fish caught along the Coosa River at the state line.

The report points out that “no regulations ban the consumption of any of the fish caught within the state, nor is there a risk of an acute toxic episode … from consuming any of the fish.”

But Landrem said sparse testing has left tens of thousands of acres of water and fish unaccounted for. She said she asked ADEM officials why they tested locations at opposite ends of the 52-mile-long reservoir.

“They said they followed their standard procedures in testing those two sites,” she said.

An ADEM official told The Post his department does the best it can with whatever financing the state provides.

“The Department has never had dedicated funding for our fish testing program,” said spokesman Scott Hughes. “And Alabama has over 77,000 miles of rivers, lakes and shoreline.”

Hughes said ADEM scientists and biologists “do a good job” with limited resources. But he admitted they are only able to test around 500 fish from across the entire state each year.

Landrem said once ADEM officials were out on Weiss, they could have tested multiple sites between the state line and forebay with little added cost.

“The people were here, the equipment was here,” she said.

Landrem also said ADPH took much too long to release test results from samples taken in the fall of 2010.

“If they're going to tell us that we should only consume a certain amount of fish per month, why wait almost a year to tell us,” she said.

Hughes told The Post they caught the fish when their fat content is typically at its highest, then conducted their tests as quickly as possible.

ADPH environmental toxicologist Dr. John Guarisco said his office usually releases advisories in the spring. But he said ADEM lab work was held up this year by an event that occurred far from Weiss Lake.

“ADEM was heavily involved in many aspects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico,” Guarisco told The Post. “That delayed the normal testing schedule by several months.”

Landrem also complained that the report contains inconsistencies. For one, she pointed out that Alabama officials do not list any advisories for fish caught on the Coosa River at the state line, while a 2010 report from Georgia's Environmental Protection Division contains an advisory for that exact location.

“If you go on the other side of the line you can't eat the fish?” she said. “How can that be?”

After speaking with his counterparts in Georgia, Dr. Guarisco called back to The Post with an answer.

"Georgia does not use the same EPA guidelines Alabama uses, they have their own guidelines that they established in the 1990s," Guarisco said.

Guarisco said no one should infer from the difference that Alabama's testing parameters are deficient to Georgia's.

"Theirs are simply a bit more conservative," Guarisco said. "Alabama's guidelines are safe for long-term consumption."

Still, Guarisco, who has been on the job since December, said he plans to work more closely with Georgia in the future.

"From now on, my plan is to talk with them when we share a body of water, compare findings and set up an amenable fish advisory," Guarisco said.

To read the full report, visit the Department of Public Health website at www.adph.org and click on “fishing advisories”.