Big Berkey Water Filters

The Denver Post has recently reported that an abandoned uranium mine located in Jefferson County, Colorado is contaminating both surrounding groundwater and a creek that serves the Denver’s Ralston Water Reservoir. Beneath the Schwartzwalder Mine, Uranium concentrations were found to exceed human health standards by more than 1000 times! Fortunately, the Ralston Reservoir is on temporary leave from serving Denver’s drinking water system, but local residents who are on wells in Jefferson County are rightfully nervous about this new development. However, it’s not such a new development.

Colorado regulators were aware of this contamination at least as early as July 2009, with uranium seepage likely underway for a considerable time beforehand, yet neither local residents nor the Denver water authority was notified of the problem. Negotiations with the owner for the clean-up of the mine and contaminated areas have been underway for some time, but a resolution has yet to be reached.  In the meantime, Uranium continues to seep into the surrounding environment.

Tags: goundwater pollution, uranium pollution, uranium seepage, water pollution

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 11:37 am and is filed under Uncategorized, water pollution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.