San Angelo

Radiation: It's Everywhere (Not Just at the Hickory Aquifer)

By Cheyenne Benson, Sep 19, 2013
 

City Council received an update on the Hickory Aquifer from experts on radioactivity Tuesday, to address concerns about the radium levels present in the water and the concern for the health of future workers in the treatment plant.

Dr. Ian Hamilton, corporate safety officer on radiation at health insurance provider Scott and White, and licensed nuclear engineer Rick Jacobi demonstrated how much radiation is present in common objects with a Geiger counter.

“Radiation is natural in origin,” said Hamilton as he displayed graphs and infographics on naturally occurring radiation levels from foods and the sun.

Jacobi explained the design and safety features of the plant, as well as addressed concerns such as the possibility of the plant exploding.

“This plant is very safe, there are no explosives” he said, “None of these materials are flammable.”

The treatment plant will be the largest of its kind and have many safety features to ensure that there will be very minimal danger exposed to the workers or environment.

“I am very confident,” Jacobi expressed his professional opinion of the treatment plant’s ability to provide safe water to San Angelo, “it’s a proven process.”

The the pipeline that transports water from the Hickory Aquifer to San Angelo is slated for completion by the end of the year.

 

 

 

Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily

View Past Issues

The LIVE! Daily is the "newspaper to your email" for San Angelo. Each content-packed edition has weather, the popular Top of the Email opinion and rumor mill column, news around the state of Texas, news around west Texas, the latest news stories from San Angelo LIVE!, events, and the most recent obituaries. The bottom of the email contains the most recent rants and comments. The LIVE! daily is emailed 5 days per week. On Sundays, subscribers receive the West Texas Real Estate LIVE! email.

Required

Most Recent Videos

Comments

Is the standard test for surface radiation (geiger counter sweep), the same test used to test the radium levels of water? Whoops, never mind. A quick trip to the EPA's webpage and a review of the Clean Water Act will tell the novice that the only approved way to test for radium levels in water are through APPROVED laboratory tests. What the city council observed and wants us to believe is nothing more than a dog and pony act.
Permalink
Carollo is very proud of the work we've been doing for the City of San Angelo and its citizens. Over the past four years of this project, our team has worked closely with the City to plan, evaluate, test, and retest the design of the water treatment system and the infrastructure needed to transport the water from the Hickory Aquifer to the people of San Angelo. Our goal is to make this a safe and sustainable water supply that can keep San Angelo growing and thriving. You can read more about this complex and interesting project here: http://www.carollo.com/sites/default/files/news/SanAngelo.pdf
Permalink
A Geiger counter can be sued to check for radium even in drinking water. Radium 226 produces gamma rays which the Geiger counter will pick up. It will not tell you the parts per (gallon/liter). That would come from Liquid Scintillation Counting (LSC) and there are handheld LSC machines that can display the result within a short time frame (less than an hour in some cases). The radon tests are just activated charcoal that absorbs the radon gas and at the lab, the charcoal is reheated which gives off the gas and it is measured. They then resell the activated charcoal. Radon gas is not a problem at surface levels in most cases. It is heavier than air and builds up in low lying places such as a basement or storm shelter. For elevated radon levels, a vent fan would be the corrective action. Nearly all radium is removed in the water filtration process. If you are truly worried, you can get a whole house filter and supplement it with a reverse osmosis machine inside your house. They used to run about $3,000 in the San Angelo and surrounding areas but that was almost 30 years ago.
Permalink

Post a comment to this article here:

Login to CommentRegister to Comment