Unsafe Levels of Radium Taint Water

Federal scientists have found unsafe levels of cancer-causing radium in the major source for drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people in southern New Jersey, the Philadelphia Inquirer has reported. An eight-year study by the U.S. Geological survey found 33% of the private wells tested between 1989 and 1996 in six southern New Jersey counties had unsafe levels of radium. In the more heavily developed areas of those counties, the unhealthy levels were found in 65% of the water supplies tested. The radium-tainted water is in the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer, which supplies water to about 200,000 private wells used by an estimated 500,000 people, the paper said.