Uranium Contamination Linked To Drought

Uranium is a growing threat to the water supply out West.

“Uranium, the stuff of nuclear fuel for power plants and atom bombs, increasingly is showing in drinking water systems in major farming regions of the U.S. West — a natural though unexpected byproduct of irrigation, drought, and the overpumping of natural underground water reserves,” the Associated Press reported.

An Associated Press investigation found that authorities are doing little to address the problem or to “inform the public at large of the risk,” the report said.

In California’s San Joaquin Valley, one out of four families using private wells are unknowingly drinking water tainted by unsafe levels.

“Government authorities say long-term exposure to uranium can damage kidneys and raise cancer risks, and scientists say it can have other harmful effects,” the report said.

“The USGS calculates that the average level of uranium in public-supply wells of the eastern San Joaquin Valley increased 17 percent from 1990 to the mid-2000s. The number of public-supply wells with unsafe levels of uranium, meantime, climbed from 7 percent to 10 percent over the same period there,” it continued.

A University of Nebraska study released in August examined the breadth of the uranium problem. “Nearly 2 million people throughout the Great Plains and California live above aquifer sites contaminated with natural uranium that is mobilized by human-contributed nitrate,” the study found.

The Navajo Nation is in an ongoing struggle against uranium contamination of water resources. Uranium mining during the Cold War played a major role in contaminating reservation water sources. Many of the companies responsible for mining no longer exist. Eight companies that remain active, including Chevron and General Electric, are investigating and cleaning up the mines they are responsible for, VICE News recently reported.

For similar stories, visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Contaminant Removal Solutions Center.