For the better part of a decade, the drinking water supply for a small southwest Kansas town was almost constantly contaminated with unsafe levels of radium, a radioactive element that can cause cancer. The city of Lakin found unsafe levels of uranium in its water in 2007, said Mike Heinitz, the city’s administrator. For years, it sent quarterly notices telling residents they could be consuming high levels of uranium before opening a multimillion dollar treatment facility in 2015. Now, Lakin’s water meets federal standards. But neighboring Deerfield, downstream on the Arkansas River, might have to pipe in water from Lakin for the same reason. Uranium and sulfate flow into Kansas from Colorado on the Arkansas River. Quality of the water in that part of the state is expected only to get worse as groundwater supplies are depleted, causing concentrations of the contaminates to rise. It’s one of myriad water issues facing Kansas that members of the House Water Committee studied in informational meetings last year. This legislative session, committee members will look to reorganize the Kansas agencies that deal in water and identify long-needed funding for projects.
Source: Kansas Reflector
