SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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) by gnuman on Thursday December 10 2015, @03:52AM
Is that uranium new or has it always been there? If it has always been there, what is the point of labeling it "unsafe"?
I know that there is always a trend to either label something "OMG radiations!" or "Radiation is good for you!", but in this case it's not even about radiation. Uranium is a really cold radionuclide, meaning it doesn't produce much radiation because it has a very long half-life.
So what is the real problem?
The real problem here is that Uranium is like Lead, it's a heavy metal that will kill your kidneys and cause similar problems like lead.
Now, according to EPA (nepis.epa.gov), the MCL is 30 micrograms per liter for Uranium in drinking water with target of 0. For Lead, their "action level" is 15 micrograms per liter for Lead with target of 0. So the levels are comparable on the regulation side. EPA didn't invent these levels out of thin air. So contamination of 180x that is actually very concerning. It means 2.7 mg/liter or 2.7 parts per million. If you drink 4 liters a day (a gallon for metric deficient), you are drinking about 4 grams of pure uranium in a year. If this was lead, you'd be exposed to serious contamination.
High nitrate levels are just as concerning. These can result in birth defects, anemia and other problems.
So both, nitrate and uranium are bad bad bad at these levels. While using that water to feed your plants, nitrates don't matter, but uranium can contaminate and get concentrated in the produce, which is bad for people eating it (think, lead exposure).