Uranium Contaminates Water Across California's Central Valley (2015)

From 2015, scare mongering with little content other than vague statements like<p>&quot;Before treatment, Westport&#x27;s water tested up to four times state and federal limits. After treatment, it&#x27;s safe for the children, teachers and staff to drink.&quot;<p>This does not point to a specific limit such as Maxiumum Contanminant Level (MCL) or Maximum Contaminant Limit Goal (MCLG). MCLG is a non-legally binding limit, which is as it states is a goal. MCLG for urainum contaminants is 0 ug&#x2F;L. Any measurement of any drinking water will always have more uranium than this limit. The MCL is 30ug&#x2F;L for uranium.<p>Additionally, the EPA has changed the way in which they have approached limits, previously they quoted something like the World Health Organization limits [3], which are average daily consumption limits. Average implies that some measurements could be high or low. WHO estimates natural concentration of uranium in drinking water is 0.08 ug&#x2F;L (0.001 Bq&#x2F;L), which is obviously above the EPAs MCLG.<p>WHO is a much better resource for information on these limits, and the EPA appears to just take their limits and do a divide by ten.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Maximum_Contaminant_Level" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Maximum_Contaminant_Level</a> [2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nepis.epa.gov&#x2F;Exe&#x2F;ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=30006644.txt" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nepis.epa.gov&#x2F;Exe&#x2F;ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=30006644.txt</a> [3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;apps.who.int&#x2F;iris&#x2F;bitstream&#x2F;handle&#x2F;10665&#x2F;272995&#x2F;9789241513746-eng.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;apps.who.int&#x2F;iris&#x2F;bitstream&#x2F;handle&#x2F;10665&#x2F;272995&#x2F;9789...</a>

Ah scare mongering. The safety limits are put in place such that the exposure causes no measurable effects, plus a buffer for safety. The precision of our instruments is very, very high.<p>Naturally occurring uranium has a very long half life. Which means it radiates very small amounts in comparison to other radioactive elements like certain isotopses of cesium and iodine. By many orders of magnitude.<p>You could drink 10x the &quot;safe&quot; levels of uranium your whole life and have no ill effects. Holding a kg rod of pure uranium gives you exposure between normal background and a plane flight.<p>The outrage you&#x27;re looking for isn&#x27;t here. It&#x27;s not another Flint.

This has always been the case, at least in the Bakersfield area, unless a well actively filters these out. Our well water in the 90&#x27;s would usually be 2-3x the EPA limits.

&gt;&gt; Other Central California farm schools opt to buy bottled water in place of drinking fountains, which are off limits because of uranium and other contaminants<p>Has anyone tested the bottled water? Most of it comes from domestic water supplies anyway. Since uranium doesn&#x27;t have any impact on taste, I doubt the bottling companies are looking for it.<p>Also see: Recovery of uranium from seawater using amidoxime hollow fibers<p>&quot;The fixed‐bed adsorption column, 30 cm in length and charged with the bundle of AO‐H fibers, was found to adsorb uranium from natural seawater at a sufficiently high rate: 0.66 mg uranium per g of adsorbent in 25 days.&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;aiche.onlinelibrary.wiley.com&#x2F;doi&#x2F;abs&#x2F;10.1002&#x2F;aic.690340308" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;aiche.onlinelibrary.wiley.com&#x2F;doi&#x2F;abs&#x2F;10.1002&#x2F;aic.69...</a><p>That sort of tech could not just clean uranium from water, but at a commercial scale could produce very interesting amounts of uranium relatively quickly.

Galen Winsor, who worked on the Manhattan Project and at GE, eating uranium on camera<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=bqwYHmgB3Xc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=bqwYHmgB3Xc</a>

Well water was used to produce many crops throughout the California Central Valley during the recent long drought, vegetables and fruits that are then shipped for consumption throughout the States.

(2015)

So apparently it&#x27;s not very radioactive but does have toxicity. Should we not be concerned about the food supply? Is produce tested?