Radium in Coastal Sarasota County Ground Water

Abstract

Sarasota County is one of 10 generalized areas of the continental United States known to haw high concentrations of naturally occurring radium in fresh ground water (Chandler 1989). Various authors have conducted investigations to examine the distribution of radium in ground water, rivers, and estuaries. They concluded that ground water was the source of radium, but rivers were also enriched with radium as a result of the interaction with ground water. The Glulf of Mexico also has areas with radium enrichment resulting from geothermal springs with concentrations as high as 51 picocuries per liter. During 1986 and 1987. the Health and Rehabilitative Services of the state of Florida collected ground water data for radium analysis of private drinking water wells. These data were used to develop a contour map of radium‐226 concentrations for coastal Sarasota County.

Natural Radiation in the Rocks, Soils, and Groundwater of Southern Florida with a Discussion on Potential Health Impacts

“…Southern Florida contains naturally occurring radioactive substances in rocks, soils, groundwater, and indoor air at various concentrations [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. In addition, radioisotopes associated with atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons have accumulated in the soils and sediments of southern Florida and sometimes are mobilized into groundwater [14,15,16].…”