Now that researchers at NASA have discovered “alien” life in our own backyard — arsenic eating bacteria — it’s not so far fetched that the Eastern Sierra won’t be so pleasant for fishermen…

NASA announced that a team of astrobiologists have found a type of microorganism in Mono Lake, California, USA, Earth that can use the usually poisonous element arsenic to reproduce and grow. Indeed, this little bacteria build parts of itself by replacing phosphorus with arsenic in its cells and DNA.

The discovery of this organism threatens the thought that we could forever saunter carefree in this neck of the woods.

Now we have to worry about our own Smog Monster — the antagonist in 1971’s Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster that fed upon the toxins humanity inflicted upon earth — rising up. It may be inevitable that these little buggers will make a bee line for local creeks, where arsenic could be present years after mining for gold released the arsenic sulphides often found in conjunction with the precious metal.

Forget the waders, get out the hazmat suit.