The State : High Selenium Level in Food

Higher than normal levels of selenium were found in food crops in parts of the western San Joaquin Valley and pose a hazard if the valley’s irrigation drainage problems are not resolved, a UC Davis report warned. Contributing to the problem, said UC agricultural researchers, were salinity and drainage complications, allowing the mineral to remain in shallow ground water. However, research by more than 40 UC Davis scientists found that no food produced in the valley under current commercial conditions contained selenium at concentrations considered hazardous to human health. When some excess water was drained from western San Joaquin Valley fields and pumped into the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, large numbers of birds suffered deformities and death from selenium poisoning.