Navajo Water Supply is ‘More Horrific than Flint,’ But No One Cares Because they’re Native American

[progree]

18. Speaking of uranium in the water and tips of the iceberg

Fear at the tap: Uranium contaminates water in the West, AP, 12/8/15

Uranium, the stuff of nuclear fuel for power plants and atom bombs, increasingly is showing in drinking water systems in major farming regions of the U.S. West — a natural though unexpected byproduct of irrigation, drought, and the overpumping of natural underground water reserves.

An Associated Press investigation in California's central farm valleys — along with the U.S. Central Plains, among the areas most affected — found authorities are doing little to inform the public at large of the risk.

That includes the one out of four families on private wells in this farm valley (California's Central Valley) who, unknowingly, are drinking dangerous amounts of uranium. Government authorities say long-term exposure to uranium can damage kidneys and raise cancer risks, and scientists say it can have other harmful effects.

In this swath of farmland, roughly 250 miles long and encompassing cities, up to one in 10 public water systems have raw drinking water with uranium levels that exceed safety standards, the U.S. Geological Survey has found.

More broadly, ... (sigh)

More: http://news.yahoo.com/fear-tap-uranium-contaminates-water-west-051313046.html