No abstract

An estimated 11 million people in the US have home wells with unsafe levels of hazardous metals and nitrate. The national scope of the health risk from consuming this water has not been assessed as home wells are largely unregulated and data on well water treatment and consumption are lacking. Here, we assessed health risks from consumption of contaminated well water on the Crow Reservation by conducting a community-engaged, cumulative risk assessment. Well water testing, surveys and interviews were used to collect data on contaminant concentrations, water treatment methods, well water consumption, and well and septic system protection and maintenance practices. Additive Hazard Index calculations show that the water in more than 39% of wells is unsafe due to uranium, manganese, nitrate, zinc and/or arsenic. Most families’ financial resources are limited, and 95% of participants do not employ water treatment technologies. Despite widespread high total dissolved solids, poor taste and odor, 80% of families consume their well water. Lack of environmental health literacy about well water safety, pre-existing health conditions and limited environmental enforcement also contribute to vulnerability. Ensuring access to safe drinking water and providing accompanying education are urgent public health priorities for Crow and other rural US families with low environmental health literacy and limited financial resources.

Exposure to uranium can damage kidneys,

Uranium occurrence and development has left a legacy of long-lived health effects for many Native Americans and Alaska Natives in the United States. Some Native American communities have been impacted by processing and development while others are living with naturally occurring sources of uranium. The uranium production peak spanned from approximately 1948 to the 1980s. Thousands of mines, mainly on the Colorado Plateau, were developed in the western U.S. during the uranium boom. Many of these mines were abandoned and have not been reclaimed. Native Americans in the Colorado Plateau area including the Navajo, Southern Ute, Ute Mountain, Hopi, Zuni, Laguna, Acoma, and several other Pueblo nations, with their intimate knowledge of the land, often led miners to uranium resources during this exploration boom. As a result of the mining activity many Indian Nations residing near areas of mining or milling have had and continue to have their health compromised. This short review aims to rekindle the public awareness of the plight of Native American communities living with the legacy of uranium procurement, including mining, milling, down winders, nuclear weapon development and long term nuclear waste storage.

REE RESULTS:The oil in the Bighorn Basin has been determined to be mainly sourced by dark organic-rich and phosphatic, fine grained sediments of the Permian Phosphoria Formation [Stone, 1967]. The bitumen that is included in the graphs below is likely a product of that migration. Data from several studies of the Phosphoria Formation in ID, WY and MT was examined. Spidergram plots of REE plus Y normalized to CI using the values of Anders and Grevesse, 1989, were produced from some of the data which had similar concentrations with some data from this study. The samples in our study lack the distinctive negative Ce anomaly characteristic of seawater though have similar HREE and Y patterns to the USGS rock sample REE patterns. The patterns from this study likely represent the fractionation of the REE as a group with the maturation and migration of the hydrocarbons and brines from the Bighorn Basin into structures hosting the deposits. OTHER METALS:Metals detected in this study that have similar high concentrations to Phosphoria Fm. samples from USGS studies are highlighted in red in the DISCUSSION AND RESULTS:Using petrographic methods bitumen was observed lining clasts, in the interparticle porosity, and as inclusions in calcite cement and other minerals.