SACRAMENTO - The river that gave birth to the California Gold Rush is now so polluted with toxic mercury that state officials are advising people to limit the fish they eat from Lake Natoma and the lower American River.
Making final an advisory it drafted in April, the state Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday urged children and women of childbearing age not to eat channel catfish from Lake Natoma or the river below it, and to limit consumption of bass and other fish.
Folsom Lake is not immediately affected, but Cal-EPA officials say people should also be careful what they eat from those waters.
''Fish are still recommended as part of a healthy, balanced diet,'' said Joan Denton, director of Cal-EPA's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. But people, particularly children and younger women, need to be careful about certain fish, she said.
Mercury, a toxic metal, attacks the central nervous system and can cause coordination loss, hearing problems and even blindness.
