Radium Reduction Ordered

Most of the 53 communities in eastern Wisconsin pump water from saturated sandstone deep underground, according to Don Swailes, chief of the DNR’s drinking-water quality program. All rock contains radium, but water held in some deep sandstone aquifers has accumulated the highest doses.

Swailes and other DNR officials will begin negotiating compliance plans with each of the well owners. By December of this year, officials with the 53 water systems must have signed consent orders that establish a timetable for meeting the federal standard of no more than five picocuries of radium per liter of water, Swailes said. A picocurie is a measure of radioactivity, or the pace at which a radioactive element such as radium disintegrates.