There are
already established MCL’s for naturally occurring radiation which includes
gross alpha, tritium, strontium 90, gross beta, uranium, radium 226 & 228
and perhaps others depending on local conditions.
-----Original
Message-----
From: AndrewsJP@AOL.COM
[mailto:AndrewsJP@AOL.COM]
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2001
8:54 AM
To: mark.hogue@SRS.GOV;
Tony.Harrison@state.co.us
Cc:
owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: Re: Water monitoring
In a
message dated 11/15/2001 11:29:05 AM Eastern Standard Time, mark.hogue@SRS.GOV
writes:
While
contaminating a water supply would be a viable threat, I think that using
radioactive material for this purpose would be relatively ineffective.
I'm having a hard time thinking up a scenario that would cause harm, other than
worry, by putting any kind of radioactivity into any water system. I
won't list the obvious exceptions to this, but as far as I can tell, adding
most alpha emitters to ordinary water will cause the local bottom material to
become contaminated and not much will get into the water for any duration.
Ordinary floculation and precipitation and filtration will remove most
contaminants. That doesn't mean that it will all be gone, but enough will
be removed to prevent harm to the population.
So, this leaves low level detection at the point of final processing.
That is, or should be, done by the water chemist using a low background
counter on a routine basis. That said, what do you do if you find significant
(still not harmful) radioactivity in the water. This is a policy question
that should be answered in the emergency plan because shutting off the water
supply or restricting its use can be very harmful to many people. I suggest
that the policy makers for all water distribution agencies should look at this
issue and have some answers prepared in the emergency plan for the agency.
This should allow reasonable levels of radioactivity in the water where
they do not actually harm people and the reporting and distribution of this
information to the uses in advance so the s___ is not scared out of them by
"terrorists."
My opinions only. I don't work for anybody anymore!
John Andrews
Knoxville, Tennessee