[D Graber]

D Graber

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This especially affects some people in California and in the midwest, but there are scattered effects in all kinds of unexpected places across the nation. See details in this article:

http://phys.org/news/2015-08-major-aquifers-contaminated-natural-uranium.html

Notice that in a lot of places, nitrate contamination from agricultural fertilizer runoff accompanies the uranium contamination. Some small towns with minimal budgets have tried to cope with the nitrate issue by providing bottled water for drinking and cooking to affected families. Those towns have been pitched by contractors for multi-million dollar water treatment plants, just to handle the nitrate issue, never mind such towns’ inability to afford the big bucks solutions. I shudder to imagine what proposals they’ll be pitched now to cope with the uranium issue as well.

The article does not discuss remedies. Realize that you don’t need super clean water for your lawn, to wash the car or the dog, to wash clothes, etc. And clean water for drinking and cooking only is a lot cheaper on a “point of use” basis, meaning when such water is cleaned on the kitchen countertops of affected households. There are a couple of methods (in addition to bringing in bottled water) worth mentioning:

1. Household kitchen sized water distillers remove ALL contaminants, period, if the user is instructed how to run the distiller properly. (Easy to do).

2. There are a few bucket-sized gravity fed water filters that (with an installed specialty filter) can remove all uranium from the water, but only “some” of the nitrate contamination. The so-called “Big Berkey” brand comes to mind.

But there will be political pressure for high dollar municipal water treatment plants that some larger cities might be able to afford. That way, cars, dogs and clothes can all be washed with the same super clean water needed for drinking and cooking — at some cost.

The point of this discussion is that if you are aware of the problem, and potential solutions, you can be better equipped to deal with how frightened people will likely devalue housing in such areas.

–Dee

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