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Writing in the August edition of Environmental Science and Technology Letters, Jason Nolan and Karrie A. Weber of the University of Nebraska report unsafe levels of uranium in groundwater from California's San Joaquin Valley and from the Ogallala Aquifer underlying Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming and South Dakota.
In Natural Uranium Contamination in Major U.S. Aquifers Linked to Nitrate they note a correlation between concentrations of uranium and nitrate ions in the groundwater samples they tested. They theorize that the nitrate, a major component of fertilizer, can oxidize uranium from U(IV) to U(VI), making it water-soluble. They found that in the San Joaquin Valley, uranium reached as much as 180 times the maximum contaminant level (MCL) set by the Environmental Protection Agency, and nitrate was as much as 34 times the MCL. Samples from the Ogallala Aquifer had as much as 89 times the MCL of uranium and 189 times the MCL of nitrate.
Water from these aquifers is used for drinking and for irrigation. Soluble uranium is bioaccumulated by certain food crops; uranium in the human body can result in cancer and kidney damage.
The Associated Press also reported on the story.
(Score: 2, Troll) by mcgrew on Wednesday December 09 2015, @10:04PM
Why is it that nobody brings up the fact that before WWII there was very little written about cancers, despite the fact that almost everyone smoked and burned coal to heat their houses?
Tons of radioactivity were released into the atmosphere from the 1940s to the 1960s. I remember once when I was a kid we had a thunder snow storm that dropped two feet of snow, and parents were warned not to let their kids play in it because it was radioactive, the storm system having passed through Nevada right after an above ground nuclear bomb test. Later they asked for kids' baby teeth to test for strontium-90.
Radioactivity is all over the US thanks to nuclear testing.
Donald Trump is a mixture of Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, multiplied by ten.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2015, @03:36AM
Before ~1920 or so they were not even sure what it was. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation#Discovery [wikipedia.org]
In fact people thought it was 'ok' and used it for everything from clocks to getting your shoe size correct.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls [wikipedia.org]
Think about this for a bit. If it glowed from 1910 to about 1960. It was probably radioactive.