The Water

High levels of radioactive radium were being discovered in excavated water pipes and discarded water heaters throughout parts of Central Texas recently. Those pipes and water heaters were so radioactive that the junk yard in Brady, TX could not take them. The pipes had only been in the ground transporting water from the area's Hickory Aquifer for five years.

The type of radiation is alpha radiation, which is emitted from radionuclides such as radium and uranium that occur naturally beneath the earth's surface. External alpha radiation is not considered much of a health hazard. But ingesting even a small amount from water creates DNA damage, leading to a plethora of health problems.

Even the water level alpha radiation exposure allowed by EPA standards could result in one in every 1,000 consumers getting cancer. But health experts have projected one in 400 locals could wind up with cancer with the current levels of radiation. Over 200,000 persons depend on water from the Hickory Aquifer and private wells in that area.

If EPA water radiation standards are exceeded, local area environmental commissions are required to notify the public. There have been no public notices, because the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) fudged their test results each year, creating lower radioactive reports than the actual readings.

The Conspiracy to Hide Radiation Readings

Sloppiness and random errors did not create the lower readings. According to the KHOU investigation, this was a TCEQ policy to knowingly evade EPA enforcement. Radioactive readings were subtracted from submitted reports as a matter of policy. This was known throughout the TCEQ agency and beyond.

The KHOU investigative team used the state attorney general to obtain a 2001 white paper from TCEQ scientists addressing concerns over high radium levels in Central Texas drinking water. TCEQ's public water manager denied ever seeing that paper even after the TV station produced a 2010 version which he had signed. The TCEQ's public water manager lied on camera. How did he get away with that? Because he's not the only one in on it.

The investigative team acquired documentation that included a trail of Texas bureaucrats and politicians leading all the way to Governor Rick Perry's office. All of them knew of this situation. No one notified anyone who might be able to help while ignoring 200,000 Texans who were being exposed to high radiation.

A concerned TCEQ employee was told "this is the way we've been doing this for as long as I know." The fix was in as a matter of policy that the state officials of Texas had long accepted as business as usual. But why?

Correcting EPA violations is expensive. And refusing to correct them can ultimately result in a state's losing control over its water supply.

According to one former TCEQ commissioner, the radium level subtractions were a good policy because the EPA's limits were too stringent. In other words, the TCEQ didn't like the EPA standards regardless of the science behind them.

It wasn't until a 2008 EPA audit that this situation started coming to light, but next to nothing is being done about it. It's no secret that the EPA has been watered down considerably over the last decade and a half. So the bureaucratic paper shuffling, denial, and political boilerplate responses have continued from 2008 to this day.

Withholding radioactivity danger is not restricted to the Texas government. Japan's Fukushima official denials continue with MSM complicity. There are 23 USA nuclear plants that may be leaking. Two Missouri area nuclear plants were surrounded by flooding for some time. Hardly any of this has been covered by the national media.

You can't depend on government solutions when governments refuse to disclose what's really happening and the mainstream media refuses to investigate.

Sources (with video reports)for this article include:

http://www.khou.com/home/-Texas-pol...

http://www.khou.com/home/-I-Team-Te...

http://www.naturalnews.com/z033386_radiation_drinking_water.html

Aug. 21, 2011