Stockton bans eating fish caught in Smith Canal after oil illegally dumped

STOCKTON — American Legion Park is an area open to fishing, but Stockton city officials have now banned eating what you catch there after a dangerous chemical was found in the water.

Nearly 400 gallons of oil were illegally dumped into the Smith Canal in central Stockton.

"Crews were able to get out here pretty quickly and get down an absorbent boom which is the white boom that you can see, but it was critical because we didn't have a lot of time," said Kristina Werner, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Office of Spill Prevention.

Werner said that crews put absorbers into the water that collect the oil, but for a mile and a half stretch of the canal, the harm was already done.

"Especially for spills like this, it would be the contact with the material," CDFW Scientist Andy Taylor said of the harms the spill could cause. "It could be chemical burns, and with fish, it could take oxygen out of the water and suffocate the fish."

While crews were testing the water in the canal, they found a chemical unrelated to the oil spill known as PCB, or polychlorinated biphenyls, which was banned in California in the 1970s.

An active notice went out to residents advising them not to eat any fish caught in the canal. So why was PCB found in the water now?

According to the CDC, PCB comes from electrical equipment and has a long life when absorbed into soil and living tissue, long enough to stay in the water for decades.

"It gets absorbed into fish and animal tissue," Taylor said. "Just due to the high concentration, and its detrimental to humans in high quantities."

Now, residents who come to the park often, like Shirley Wilson, are hurt that their environment was harmed by the oil dump and this dangerous chemical.

"To add toxins and contaminate it, you're not just hurting no one, you're hurting the people," she said.

Stocktonians told us off camera that its been known for years to not eat the fish from the canal.

You can still fish and boat on the water, but swimming and eating what you catch is off-limits.