suppose I will drop my two cents....
I owned and managed a local bullet factory for a few years in the late nineties and dealt with lead daily. We went through several rail cars per month. We stored a lot of it outside with the blessing of all regulating agencies so long as it was free of oil and contaminants (their wording not mine). We used fluoboric acid (one of only two that will) to dissolve the lead. Lead will NOT disolve in a 99% solution of sulfuric(battery) acid. Your car battery is about a 10% solution. Fluoboric acid is not common and does not show up in any watersheds that I am aware of.

The average human will show about 5 micrograms in the bloodstream. The employees who would eat or smoke without washing their hands would go to about 25. I had one man who tested over 50. L and I requires you to remove the person from the job at 30 and the premises at 50. Lead is most dangerous to children and the unborn, presenting a myriad of maladies and illnesses. Adults can process from 20 to 30 micrograms out of their systems in about two months. If you use lead and smoke, wash thoroughly before lighting up or eating your lunch. I would also suggest all those who cast their own lead or routinely handle it to have a blood test every year. It does abrade easily and the dust travels remarkably well.

I, personally, do not worry one bit about the lead in the rivers. The line and tackle it is usually tied to are what get me tweaked off. If you have to use twenty pound fireline to fish steelhead...take up bass fishin' and stay away from the rivers. The shipyards used a zinc-chromate primer similar to Boeing (the green stuff)that contains all kinds of nasties already in solution. Remember also that back in the sixties all of the local plating shops could and would dump electroplating waste into the rivers and streams leading to the sound. I know a guy that turned about 5 miles of the green river bright purple one day way back when. Thankfully the people and the laws prevent that stuff now.

If you need a reason to dislike water, just remember.....fish hump in it. I drink mountain dew------