Study: 2 major US aquifers contaminated by natural uranium
Naturally occurring uranium is being mobilized by farm-related pollution
From the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Nearly 2 million people throughout the Great Plains and California above aquifer sites contaminated with natural uranium that is mobilized by human-contributed nitrate, according to a study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Data from roughly 275,000 groundwater samples in the High Plains and Central Valley aquifers show that many Americans live less than two-thirds of a mile from wells that often far exceed the uranium guideline set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The study reports that 78 percent of the uranium-contaminated sites were linked to the presence of nitrate, a common groundwater contaminant that originates mainly from chemical fertilizers and animal waste. Nitrate mobilizes naturally occurring uranium through a series of bacterial and chemical reactions that oxidize the radioactive mineral, making it soluble in groundwater.
UNL researchers Karrie Weber and Jason Nolan found that the High Plains aquifer contains uranium concentrations up to 89 times the EPA standard and nitrate concentrations up to 189 times greater. The uranium and nitrate levels of the California-based Central Valley aquifer measured up to 180 and 34 times their respective EPA thresholds.
The authors published their findings in the August edition of the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters. Their research was funded in part by the U.S. Geological Survey.
“It needs to be recognized that uranium is a widespread contaminant,” said Weber, assistant professor of biological, Earth and atmospheric sciences. “And we are creating this problem by producing a primary contaminant that leads to a secondary one.”
Prior research has suggested that prolonged drinking of uranium-contaminated water may lead, or make people more susceptible, to kidney damage and elevated blood pressure. According to Weber, peer-reviewed studies have also indicated that food crops can accumulate uranium when irrigated by water containing high concentrations of it.
The High Plains aquifer — the largest in the United States — provides drinking water and irrigation for an eight-state swath that stretches from South Dakota through Nebraska and into northern Texas. As California’s largest reservoir, the Central Valley aquifer sits beneath some of the state’s most fertile agricultural land. According to a 2012 census from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the two aquifers irrigate cropland that accounts for one-sixth of the annual revenue generated by U.S. agriculture.
The researchers also determined that only one of the six wells located near a former or current mining site was contaminated. This finding counters the notion that uranium contamination stems primarily from mining operations or spent nuclear fuel, Weber said.
“We hope that this study serves as a catalyst to get other people interested in this issue,” she said. “If the problem is this widespread, more research needs to be done. We’re limited by the data that’s been collected, and uranium isn’t often monitored.”
Weber said the expense of water treatment plants — specialized facilities that can cost tens of millions of dollars — often puts them out of financial reach for smaller and rural communities. Addressing the issue might require managing groundwater and focusing on the aquifers’ sediment, which houses bacteria that can help control uranium by breathing and eating it, she said.
Regardless of the approach, Weber said it is important for decision-makers and researchers to account for the presence of uranium in U.S. water sources.
“When you start thinking about how much water is drawn from these aquifers, it’s substantial relative to anywhere else in the world,” Weber said. “These two aquifers are economically important — they play a significant role in feeding the nation — but they’re also important for health.
“What’s the point of having water if you can’t drink it or use it for irrigation?”
###
One wonders how much real risk there is here. For example, we get more radiation in a banana (due to radioactive potassium drawn from the soil) than we’d get from exposure to Fukashima’s supposed radiation releases. Along those lines, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in Atlanta has this to say about natural Uranium exposure:
Root crops such as potatoes, parsnips, turnips, and sweet potatoes contribute the highest amounts of uranium to the diet. The amount of uranium in these foods is directly related to the amount of uranium in the soil in which they are grown.
Just think of all those radioactive french fries and sweet potato fries (the new craze) Americans consume.
The ATSDR goes on to say in the toxicology report:
The general population is exposed to uranium via ingestion of food and drinking water and inhalation of air, with food being the primary contributor to body burden. The daily intake of uranium from food sources ranges from 0.6 to 1.0 pCi/day (0.9–1.5 µg/day). Uranium from soil is not taken up by plants, but rather is adsorbed onto the roots. Thus, the highest levels of uranium are found in root vegetables, primarily unwashed potatoes. Populations living near uranium mills or mines or other areas with elevated uranium in soil may be exposed to higher levels of uranium from locally grown vegetables. Uranium levels in drinking water vary widely, with a mean population-weighted average of 0.8 pCi/L. Compared to the ingestion route, the intake of uranium via inhalation is small; intakes range from 0.0007 to 0.007 pCi/day (0.001–0.01 µg/day).
Uranium is poorly absorbed following inhalation, oral, or dermal exposure and the amount absorbed is heavily dependent on the solubility of the compound.
It is important to note that this report doesn’t assign public health risks and says nothing about the background radiation count prior to the study because they appear to have no historical research to look at previous levels. if water examples from those aquifers exist from 50 or more years ago, they might be able to quantify how much if any increase in Uranium solubility there is.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Hmmmm, lets see they say The study reports “that 78 percent of the uranium-contaminated sites were linked to the presence of nitrate, a common groundwater contaminant that originates mainly from chemical fertilizers and animal waste. Nitrate mobilizes naturally occurring uranium through a series of bacterial and chemical reactions that oxidize the radioactive mineral, making it soluble in groundwater.”
Fertilizers, well golly how do we get the use of those fertilizers down. Hmmm did I read some where that higher levels of CO2 means less need for expensive bulky fertilizers? Are these folks saying that all we have to do is rise the CO2 level a bit and we get less radioactivity? Anyone thinking what I’m thinking
michael
…Farm-related pollution ? How do they know it isn’t urban-related ? Over application of fertilizer and chemicals is much more common in the city than on the farm…(8>((
nitrate pollution from large animal feedlots, and dairy operations is a serious concern
JB, sometimes true–and sometims not. I own a 350 head Wisconsin dairy operation on several hundred acres. Three submersible pump wells, all within 100 meters of the three barns (of course), into two aquifers (~60, ~120 feet down). All test pure, period. And the shallowest 60 foot aquifer (nearest the house, the one from which we draw our tap water, and closest ‘downstream’ from the most intensive ‘nitrate/E. coli barn– about 50 meters uphill) tested pure when drilled, and retests pure each time. Mandatory in Wisconsin, given our level of milk and cheese producing cow pooh. Oh, we produce about 1.8 million pounds of milk per year. Never calculated pounds of cow pooh per pound of milk before. A new reseach project…But given the size of our 150 hp manure spreaders, a lot!
Old Ma Gaia has amazing ways to solve problems like nitrates. AKA soil bacteria. And such.
Regards
Read up on sedimentary uranium deposits of which those in Wyoming ate typical. Uranium is mobile in an oxidising environment and is deposited in a reducing environment.
The real problem with Nitrates is at sea. It obviously contributes to algal and plankton blooms. It actually really does acidify the waters.
My cat drank some of that radioactive water. Now the poor thing has eighteen half-lives….
Ha!
In response to the Fukashima disaster, Ann Coulter set off a fire-storm in 2011 with an interesting column she wrote about potential heath benefits associated with trace levels of radiation – http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2011-03-16.html Our life expectancy keeps going up, maybe it’s this uranium diet “thing”?
There was an excellent BBC Horizon program a few years ago about the aftermath of Chernobyl. The presumption is that there is no safe dose of radioactive material. The program suggested that this wasn’t the case and that there really was no evidence that the fallout from Chernobyl had any measurable effect on life expectancy (apart from the poor souls who swept the reactor contents back into the smoldering hole in the ground on the first couple of days).
Worth tracking down.
Oblivious Mike some people don’t like the truth, it seams you are one of them, If you don’t think she researched her column you are sadly mistaken.
Excellent. At 30 µg/l Uranium content of groundwater its energy (2700 kJ/l) is more than enough to evaporate it (2257 kJ/l), so distilled water can be produced for free 😉
The lack of understanding by the public is breathtaking. For example the typical uranium content of the soil in your garden is about 2 or 3 ppm. That is more uranium than a good gold mine has gold in it. I wonder how many gardeners would panic and never garden again if they were told that.
Indeed if you take a typical house and dug up and processed the top 10 metres of dirt you could produce enough uranium for one or two nuclear weapons, provided you have a breeder reactor available to turn it into plutonium.
I used to be a nuclear engineer at a Nuclear plant.
I was exposed to a broad array of ionizing radiation while working there. I even stood on top of the remote mechanism deck of a 2000 GMW reactor when it was running at full power as part of my radiation training.
My most tense encounter was after a full body scan when all the alarms went off, RED LIGHTS blinking alarms buzzing and an urgent female voice shouting CONTAMINATED CONTAMINATED. I had to sit and wait 30 mins until it all decayed away.
I was exposed to Radon. It is natural in granite and I was just previously checking out the instrumentation lines in a long deep tunnel dug to the ocean through solid granite. I wasn’t even in a “Radiation Zone” I was in a non-radiation pumping facility.
The Radon was attracted to my polyester shirt.
I wore pressed cotton shirts thereafter to avoid the false positive alarms and the constant ribbing by my coworkers.
I wore a radiation badge. I got more radiation from the sun during lunch break than from the reactor.
I recall that when working on Dungeness B power station we had a major scare one day at shift change when the rad alarm at the entry gate went off. The problem was found to be an old U-boat chronometer one of the workers had brought in to show his mates. This had a luminous dial painted with radium and was so radioactive the only place we could legally keep it was the high level source store. In the end it had to be confiscated and went into the high level waste treatment bin.
That is amusing. Have you seen this?
?w=450
I have an original B-17 bomber altimeter with radium dial painted by the Radium Girls who gave their lives to US Radium and Westclox. It has always been missing the lead glass front and rim and seal across the front of it, exposing the radium dial. It’s so hot it pegs every detector I own (6) when brought within 3 feet of that dial. I keep it in my outdoor shed, now, but used to use it as a sensitive barometer, with its rotating digital Kolsman (sp) window on my desk for decades before I found its radium dial’s hazard.
I got hit with accidental radiation when I was 17 years old (accident due to incorrectly positioned shielding and collimator parts – beam hit them dead on, much heck ensued). I survived. Didn’t even fall ill.
“The study reports that 78 percent of the uranium-contaminated sites were linked to the presence of nitrate, a common groundwater contaminant that originates mainly from chemical fertilizers and animal waste. Nitrate mobilizes naturally occurring uranium through a series of bacterial and chemical reactions that oxidize the radioactive mineral, making it soluble in groundwater.”
Even now I am amazed at the vitriol and abuse and endless scientific codswallop from the organic activists. And I have been subjected to it for 40 years, so it should take a lot to surprise me.
Atmospheric Nitrogen, nitrous oxide, nitrates and nitrites are all such useful, life-giving compounds– it is hard to imagine a generation that has become so fearful and hateful of these gases, elements, and chemicals. It took humanity soooo long to figure out that nitrogen supports plant growth better than throwing virgins and volcanoes ever did!
“The Presence of NItrate Fertilizers”
Let’s just ask her to make our crops grow instead!
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LNVmkVvPyZ8/TU4C9KzM6NI/AAAAAAAAASc/3uvtEHtaWVE/s1600/Fontana_di_Diana_Efesina-Tivoli%252C_Villa_d%2527Este.jpg
max…
Hellenistic Idol. Located in Greek colonies, temples, banks, and market places. Appealed to for protection and good crops. Tend to lose noses and appendages.
Hmmm I recall a pre-adolescent fantasy…I think… it has been a long time…maybe it was someone else.
The area around Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, and west Texas is loaded with uranium. This is where “roll-front uranium deposits” were first described – and then mined, including by underground mines, open pits, and lately, in-situ solution mining. Uranium was initially deposited in volcanic tuffs – ashy or really, glassy material blown out of dacitic-rhyolitic volcanoes throughout the region, extending down into NE Mexico. In lavas of this nature, uranium – which has no home in rock-forming crystal structures – is concentrated. When the volcano erupts, it spews out billions of tons of glassy materials and gasses. These tuff deposits can measure in hundreds of cubic kilometers. Uranium is part of the package. It attaches to the glassy particles, and once deposited, is easily leached away by oxygenated (and carbonic acid-bearing) ground waters. It enters into the aquifers, and travels until it reaches a point where the aquifer’s chemistry changes from oxidizing to reducing. At that point the uranium is deposited out. Over time, this is repeated again and again. The “roll front” (a remarkable “C” shaped entity) migrates down the hydrologic gradient, becoming more and more enriched in U as it is redissolved, transport and redeposited.
Southwest Texas has hundreds of such roll fronts, many of them within a few hundred feet of the surface. These things were being formed before any humans occupied the area. Nitrate may help to leach the U from the parent rocks, but O2 and CO2 do a great job. I spent three years of my career as a geologist managing the exploration, development and mining of these fascinating deposits until Three Mile Island (a popcorn fart of a catastrophe) destroyed the uranium industry in the 1970’s.
I am concerned that we may be exposed to something we are not measuring!!!!!!
What can we do? /sarc
” we may be exposed to something we are not measuring.” Yes, BS. ” What can we do?” Don’t step in it.
EPA wants to regulate all water. University of Nebraska fines an another reason for the EPA to do so. EPA gets its wish with the help of a future congress, president or the court system. Fellow the money: EPA – NSF- .University of Nebraska : This is the “good, old boys” network of the science community regardless of how well the study was done. Where is the Data Quality Act when you need it? When will all the data and method used in studies see the sun light ? When ill all computer models used for future predictions be V and V?
So the report states for food
“The daily intake of uranium from food sources ranges from 0.6 to 1.0 pCi/day (0.9–1.5 µg/day).”
For inhalation the amount is negligible and in drinking water its 0.8 pCi/L/day
So lets err on the side of caution and work with an estimate of 3 µg/day.
WHO studies show the following
“For various endpoints and animal species ATSDR reported minimal effect levels in the
range of 1 to 10 mg/kg of body weight per day (ATSDR, 1999). For example Ortega,
(1989) observed adverse effects with rats at exposure levels, via ingestion, of 1.1 mg/kg
per day. For cattle and sheep Puls (1990) reported that minimal effects are associated
with a daily uranium intake of 400 or 50 mg U, respectively (corresponding to 1 mg
U/kg of body weight for both species).”
This is stating that an animal with a body weight of 100 kg would need to be ingesting
100 mg/day which is 100,000 µg/day in order to display even minimal harm
I don’t see an intake of 3 µg/day as being very scary. In fact a European Food Safety study showed that tap and bottled water on average contained 2 μg/L on average. The good news is that beer and soft drinks has half this level.
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/1018
So the answer seems to be if you are worried drink beer and soda 🙂
[Fake email address. ~mod.]
This isn’t a nuclear story, but an anti-fertiliser story: The reason given is “human-contributed” nitrate mobilising the Uranium salts. Now, having studied the nitrate cycle quite extensively I would love to see how they can separate “human” nitrate from the action of nitrifying bacteria in the soil. They are chemically identical.
Experiments over many years in the UK showed that the greatest release of nitrate into groundwater did not come from chemical fertlizers, but from breakdown of organic nitrogen compounds by soil bacteria followed by leaching during winter rains. This is the basis for the ‘brown field’ restrictions put in place across the EU – farmers are encouraged (often by fines for not doing it) to plant a winter catch crop which will take up the nitrates released over the autumn and winter. See how few brown, ploughed fields you see these days in comparison to the past. Yes, much of this is winter-sown crops, but even that is a response to the policies of avoiding bare fields as getting fields planted early enough for over-wintering requires much more work for farmers.
This article is just another “humans are bad for the world” beat up.
I spent some months in 2008 in North Queensland, Australia, mapping and sampling the uraniferous Toolebuc Formation. Both my assistant and I were armed with personal radiation monitors as well as a scintillometer and a spectrometer. At the end of a 3-month field stint, our personal radiation monitors were sent for analysis to a government agency which informed us that we were approaching the limit of permissible radiation exposure. By far the most predominant radiation was stated as being due to sunlight. Go figure.
I sent a sample of my laboratory distiller’s output to a friend’s medical lab in a major university. My water refuses to conduct electrical current after passing through its column of C12 to remove distillable contaminants like benzene, etc., which infects our city water. Drinking this prevents me from passing painful kidney stones from our water’s heavy dissolved calcium load.
My friend asked me where I got such a fine specimen. He was astonished it came from my kitchen. I’ve been drinking it for over 30 years and every time I read about water contamination I smile and fill another sanitized glass jug.
Hi friend!
I’ve got a piece of information that might interest you, check it out here please http://www.sungeorge.gr/comment.php?3c3d
gerjaison