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Article: Source of Tainted Md. Water Still a Mystery



This is an update(?) of the story I posted last week. 

It is from Saturday's Washington Post.  



-----------------------

Source of Tainted Md. Water Still a Mystery

 

 By Joshua Partlow

 

Whenever Allan Hungerford hears "radiation," he thinks

cancer.

 

So when Hungerford was told in October that elevated

levels of radiation had been detected in the well

water his family drinks, the 43-year-old father of two

instantly became concerned. "I don't want to be

getting a glass of water and increasing my risk by

something that simple," he said.

 

 Four months after the disclosure, he and his

neighbors in the 95-home Chapel Point Woods community

south of La Plata in Charles County are still asking

if it's safe to drink the water.

 

 The Maryland Department of the Environment has

replied with a qualified yes, explaining that a more

definitive answer is impossible until officials

determine the source of the radioactivity.

 

 "We know that this level of gross alpha radiation

does not cause any acute health impacts," said

department spokesman Richard McIntire. "Your risk for

developing various cancers related to gross alpha is 

determined on a 35- or 40-year exposure. That's why

there have not been any public health advisories or

recommendations at this point."

 

 Levels of gross alpha radiation in the subdivision's

water, which comes from three county-run wells sunk

hundreds of feet below ground into the Patapsco

aquifer, remained well below the federal limit of 15 

picocuries per liter for more than a decade, according

to the state. But in 2002, officials detected a sharp

increase -- to 43 picocuries per liter and above,

nearly three times the federal limit.

 

 Tests as recently as December  found similar levels.

 

  When some radioactive substances break down, alpha

particles are emitted. Gross alpha radiation is a

measure of these particles, but it does not establish

the radioactive substance, such as radium or uranium. 

Several sources, both natural and man-made, can be

radioactive, and long-term exposure to some types of

radiation can cause cancer, experts say.

 

 It is foolish to make judgments about any potential

health risk "without knowing what's causing the

radioactivity," said Eric J. Hall, a professor of

radiation oncology at Columbia University in New York.

 

 "In drinking water, the important thing is what is

the material, and that will determine where it goes in

the body, if anywhere," Hall said. "If it's radium, it

might go to the bones, and if it's iodine, it might 

go to the thyroid. If it's lots of other things, it

could leave the system."

 

 Hall and four other outside experts interviewed for

this article did not have direct knowledge of the

Charles County situation. Some spoke generally, saying

a level of 43 picocuries per liter is a relatively 

small dose of radiation, regardless of the source, and

therefore a small health risk. Others chose not to

speculate without knowing the source.

 

  "If 10,000 people drank the water, maybe a few of

those people might come up with cancer, whereas most

would not. It's a very small risk, and it's almost

undetectable," said Edward Christman, a health

physicist who has taught at Columbia and Rutgers

universities.

 

 Still, simply the idea of radiation has been

unsettling for some Chapel Point Woods residents.

Harry Clark, 45, said he continues to use the water

for ice cubes and cooking, but the risk of radiation

has "gotten me a bit paranoid."

 

  "There are some people that handle stress and others

that are going to be really spastic," said Clark, who

has a daughter and works at a medical center in La

Plata.

 

 David Ropeik, a spokesman at the Harvard Center for

Risk Analysis, said radiation is frightening for many

people because it is hard to understand. "Radiation

causes, in most of our minds, cancer. That's the 

endpoint," he said.

 

 For the Hungerfords and many others in Chapel Point

Woods, that means buying gallons of bottled water for

cooking and drinking while they wait for the county to

come up with a solution to clean the water. The 

contaminated wells are limited to the Chapel Point

Woods subdivision. Health officials said they have not

found elevated radiation levels in other county water

systems.

 

 Charles County water comes mainly from private and

public well systems drilled into area aquifers. The

Patapsco aquifer extends for miles beneath the

Washington region and is widely siphoned by wells in

Anne Arundel and Charles counties -- and to a lesser

extent in Prince George's and St. Mary's counties.

 

  Last week, the state sent a letter to Charles

officials outlining various ways to solve the problem,

including installing a reverse osmosis filtration

system or drilling  wells into a different aquifer.

 

 The National Institute of Standards and Technology in

Gaithersburg has also volunteered to do further

laboratory tests to try to determine the cause of the

radiation.

 

 But as the months of living with radiation mount,

patience is wearing thin.

 

 "In my own mind, I don't see the county having the

situation rectified, certainly not in the next six

months, and more likely a year down the road," said

Allan Hungerford, who has decided to install his own

home filtration system. "I don't want to keep carrying

jugs of water."

 

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© 2004 The Washington Post Company



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+++++++++++++++++++

"The care of human life and happiness . . . is the first and only legitimate object of good government."

Thomas Jefferson



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com



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