In this September 17, 2015 photo, a man picks cucumbers as the sun rises on farmland near Modesto, Calif. U.S. Officials with the Geological Survey’s Sacramento office and elsewhere believe the amount of uranium increased in Central Valley drinking-water supplies over the last 150 years with the spread of farming.
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Uranium in increasing levels has been discovered in drinking water throughout California’s central farm valleys, but the government has done little to warn the public about the risks.
Schools and public institutions are rushing to alert residents about the tainted wells, marking fountains with “SAFE TO DRINK” signs. Researchers have reportedly found a 60-million-ton concentration of unmined uranium oxide embedded in sandstone under the Texas Coastal Plain. A reports by scientists at the University of Texas is questioning the long-term safety of one method of storing nuclear waste, suggesting the waste could erode through rock salt deposits and, potentially, into groundwater.
Mountain snowmelt washes uranium-laden sediment to the flatlands. The city has retired a half-dozen other wells with excess levels of uranium.
The water in many Western regions of the United States, including California’s San Joaquin Valley, has been contaminated by uranium. They’re bringing in bottled water for students to drink But other public water systems, and many private wells, could also be at risk for contamination.
In this September 14, 2015 photo, Dora Martinez cooks food at her home in a trailer park near Fresno, Calif. Residents of the trailer park receive notices warning that their well water contains uranium at a level considered unsafe by federal and state standards.
Local water managers admit when we think uranium we often tend to think about nuclear sites. “It is”, said Doug Brugge, professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.
The school, which draws on its own wells for its drinking fountains, sinks and cafeteria, is one of about 10 water systems in the farm region that have installed uranium removal facilities in recent years.
According to California American Water the biggest worry for the area is not uranium but seawater since the aquifer is next to the Pacific Ocean.
“When it comes to private domestic wells, we do what we can to get the word out”, Borkovich said.
“It’s not something that has a taste or an odor or anything so you can’t see it, you can’t smell it, touch it, feel it, or what not”, said Chad Fischer, an engineer with the California Water Resources Control Board.
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The Associated Press commissioned independent sampling of wells at five homes in the countryside outside Modesto. Moreover, farmers growing crops that absorb uranium, such as grapes, blueberries, potatoes, radishes, and other root vegetables, are not always aware of the problem.
