Know Your Environment. Protect Your Health.

Radium, combined (-226 and -228)

Fort Davis Water Supply Corporation

Radium is a radioactive element that causes bone cancer and other cancers. It can occur naturally in groundwater, and oil and gas extraction activities such as hydraulic fracturing can elevate concentrations. Read More.

Radium releases radioactive particles that harm health in many ways, causing tumors in bone, lungs and other organs; leukemia; and skin and blood damage. Water utilities typically report radium amounts in picocuries per liter (pCi/L), which is a measure of radioactivity in water. The two most common forms of radium are radium-226 and radium-228. They may be reported separately or together.

Federal law allows up to 5 picocuries per liter of combined radium-226 and radium-228 in tap water. Research by the U.S. Geological Survey shows that in some regions of the country, such as the mid-continental region and North Atlantic coastal region, more than 20 percent of sampled wells have radium in levels exceeding the federal drinking water limit. And the legal limit does not equate safety: The EPA estimates that one in every 10,000 people drinking water containing radium at this level would develop cancer over a lifetime.

California set a public health goal much lower than the federal limit – 0.05 picocuries per liter of radium-226 and 0.019 picocuries per liter of radium-228, concentrations that are lower than the detection limit for most water tests.

Click here to read more on radiological contaminants.

 

27

Samples

0

Samples exceeding legal limit (MCL)

0

Samples exceeding
health guidelines

Testing results - average by year

 
YearAverage resultSamples takenDetectionsRange of results
2018ND50ND
2019ND50ND
2020ND40ND
2021ND90ND
2022ND40ND
2023N/A00N/A

pCi/L = picocuries per liter

State, National, and Health Guidelines for Drinking Water

EWG Health Guideline: 0.05 pCi/L

EWG applied the health guideline of 0.05 pCi/L, defined by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment as a public health goal for radium-226, to radium-226 and radium-228 combined. This health guideline protects against cancer.

EPA Maximum Contaminant
Level (MCL): 5 pCi/L

The legal limit for combined radium-226 and radium-228, established in 1976, was based on costs for radium removal, as calculated at the time that the standard was set. This limit does not fully protect against the risk of cancer due to radium exposure.

pCi/L = picocuries per liter

All test results

Date Lab ID Result
2018-01-23AE10320ND
2018-06-12AE29742ND
2018-06-12AF48148ND
2018-08-27AE38607ND
2018-10-23AE44422ND
2019-02-20AE55267ND
2019-04-29AE64279ND
2019-08-13AE78825ND
2019-10-21Q2224050002ND
2019-10-21AE87164ND
2020-02-04AE97263ND
2020-06-02AF14006ND
2020-07-30AF21319ND
2020-10-13AF30536ND
2021-03-03AF45034ND
2021-03-0319A0645-07ND
2021-03-0319A0645-02ND
2021-06-0822G2204-07ND
2021-06-0822G2204-06ND
2021-06-08AF57087ND
2021-08-16AF66822ND
2021-10-13AF73287ND
2021-10-13111159VND
2022-01-26AF81862ND
2022-01-2620-07960TND
2022-01-26E200305639ND
2022-05-11AF96412ND