Bruce E. Jones: Could uranium get in way of governor’s delta tunnels?
Re “Health: Uranium at risky levels in some Valley water” (Page 1B, Dec. 9): The Associated Press reported on uranium in our drinking water, at least from wells.
The next day Jeff Jardine’s column noted, “Most granite contains at least some uranium and therefore some level of radioactivity.” Since the Sierra is mostly granite, all the water that collects or percolates through it is suspect. Especially in underground basins before they are sucked out for urban use and watering of nut trees.
Is our drinking water going to make us glow? Are our almonds radioactive? Will China declare shipments a hostile action?
A school in Ceres five years ago noticed “unsuitable uranium levels” and added a filtration system. Jardine wrote: “The uranium recovered by the contractor could be suited for other uses, possibly as fuel at a nuclear reactor.” Apparently folks in protective gear come to the school to collect an annual pound of uranium, which “is processed into nuclear fuel for power plants.”
No fiction writer could make this up. But it could lead to a new strategy to resist the state’s bizarre plan to slice a tunnel across the huge Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to southern pumps. We must demand the state filter out all uranium.
Bruce E. Jones, Modesto
This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Bruce E. Jones: Could uranium get in way of governor’s delta tunnels?."