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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.
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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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