Tainted water runs beneath Nevada desert
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| Sat, 11-14-2009 - 8:22am |
The state faces a water crisis and population boom, but radioactive waste from the Nevada Test Site has polluted aquifers.
Complete article, interactive map & pic's see link.....
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-radiation-nevada13-2009nov13,0,3201021,full.story
Reporting from Yucca Flat, Nev. - A sea of ancient water tainted by the Cold War is creeping deep under the volcanic peaks, dry lake beds and pinyon pine forests covering a vast tract of Nevada.
Over 41 years, the federal government detonated 921 nuclear warheads underground at the Nevada Test Site, 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Each explosion deposited a toxic load of radioactivity into the ground and, in some cases, directly into aquifers.
When testing ended in 1992, the Energy Department estimated that more than 300 million curies of radiation had been left behind, making the site one of the most radioactively contaminated places in the nation.
During the era of weapons testing, Nevada embraced its role almost like a patriotic duty. There seemed to be no better use for an empty desert. But today, as Nevada faces a water crisis and a population boom, state officials are taking a new measure of the damage.
They have successfully pressured federal officials for a fresh environmental assessment of the 1,375-square-mile test site, a step toward a potential demand for monetary compensation, replacement of the lost water or a massive cleanup.
"It is one of the largest resource losses in the country," said Thomas S. Buqo, a Nevada hydrogeologist. "Nobody thought to say, 'You are destroying a natural resource.' "
In a study for Nye County, where the nuclear test site lies, Buqo estimated that the underground tests polluted 1.6 trillion gallons of water. That is as much water as Nevada is allowed to withdraw from the Colorado River in 16 years -- enough to fill a lake 300 miles long, a mile wide and 25 feet deep.
Based on their calculations, government geologists acknowledge that the forward plume of radioactive water under Pahute Mesa should have already crossed the site boundary, although it has yet to be detected by monitoring wells. Some experts worry that the contamination could reach deeper aquifers that move much more quickly.
Because the contaminated water poses no immediate health threat, the Energy Department has ranked Nevada at the bottom of its priority list for cleaning up major sites in the nuclear weapons complex, and it operates far fewer wells than at most other contaminated sites.
The test site receives about $65 million a year from the department's $5.5-billion annual nuclear cleanup budget. By contrast, about $1.8 billion a year is spent on the Hanford plutonium production site in Washington state, even though soil and water contamination there is one-thousandth as severe as in Nevada.
"Once we have the new environmental impact statement, then we will be able to talk about the federal government compensating the state," said Marta Adams, senior deputy attorney general.
Said Allen Biaggi, director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources: "We have every expectation of the federal government cleaning up the Nevada Test Site. . . . It would cost a lot, but our groundwater is worth it."



Is anyone really surprised? We just made a trip out to Vegas a few days ago and I don't know what was going on, but there was a lot of digging and burying going on in the desert. I guess they are filling it up with trash now. :(
No wonder the water is polluted.
"there was a lot of digging and burying going on in the desert"
Wonder if they've found many Mafia graves.
I enjoy visiting Vegas but after a couple of days I've had enough. Didn't understand why there was such a housing boom there.... Not my cup o' tea.
I enjoy visiting Vegas but after a couple of days I've had enough. Didn't understand why there was such a housing boom there.... Not my cup o' tea.
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Try living here. It sucks right now. DH and I are fortunate because we've got our jobs, but we have friends who are really hurting right now...losing their homes, been laid off or hours cut at work, etc. There are just simply no jobs here and all indications are that we'll be the last to recover.
Where were you seeing all the digging?...just curious. :-)
Try living here. It sucks right now. DH and I are fortunate because we've got our jobs, but we have friends who are really hurting right now...losing their homes, been laid off or hours cut at work, etc. There are just simply no jobs here and all indications are that we'll be the last to recover.
Where were you seeing all the digging?...just curious. :-)
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I have no idea. I rarely go by the Strip, let alone at night. I just drove by this weekend heading to California which was the first time in months. I'm always surprised by the new highrises that have been built since I was there last.
I think the digging you saw was still more road construction. They had widened the road through the mountain pass area.
The trash goes out to Apex which is outside Las Vegas off the I-15 heading toward Utah. There is a huge landfill there.
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Your chemistry teacher was wrong. Nevada has been fighting the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump for years. It looks like this year we finally won and the dump won't go there.
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I agree! What really chaps my hide are all the people whining about how their kids and grandkids will be paying for the deficit, but don't give a hoot about the environment we all have to live in.
"....the people whining about how their kids and grandkids will be paying for the deficit, but don't give a hoot about the environment we all have to live in."
Good point!
"Vegas is feeling the economy too. Most of the hotels had their lights down really low or off completely."
There's some ridiculously cheap packages to Vegas right now, air fare & hotel, from the East coast. Guess they're counting on the $$$ that's dropped in the casinos.