By Glenn Rolfe

SEAFORD — The city recently issued a water-contaminant advisory, alerting residents that one of its wells violated a drinking-water standard due to radium amounts that exceed acceptable levels.

The advisory, posted Aug. 12, emphasized that there is no cause for serious alarm and said the city is evaluating options to rectify the issue.

On Aug. 2, officials received notice that a sample collected June 21 showed that the city’s system exceeds the standard, or maximum contaminant level, for combined radium. The standard for combined radium (226 and 228) is 5 picoCuries per liter. The average level of combined radium over the last year was measured at 5.6 pCi/L.

Seaford routinely monitors for the presence of drinking-water contaminants. The violation occurred at one of four wells currently being used.

The well with elevated levels has been taken offline, and the city’s water needs are being adequately served by three other wells that have tested below the MCL standards, said Seaford Director of Public Works Berley Mears.

“During this time, the well is just off. We’re not using it,” he said. “There is no more possibility of having an elevated level because all of our other wells (are) well below.
“The state makes us send out this public notice that our drinking system violates this level. That’s not really true because it’s just one well that is,” he continued. “We have three other wells that are in production, and when that one well comes into the system, because it’s all a big, looped system, it gets diluted down. So you could probably go anywhere in our system and take a sample, and we’re not over this limit. It’s just the raw water coming out of this one well is a little elevated. But we have to say our whole system is in violation.”

For the most part, residents do not need to boil their water or take any other corrective action.

Out of caution, however, individuals who have specific health concerns should consult their doctors. Those who have severely compromised immune systems, have infants, are pregnant or are elderly may be at increased risk and should seek advice from health care providers about drinking this water, the city’s alert stated.

Some people who drink water containing radium 226 or 228 at a level higher than the MCL over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer, the city’s advisory added.
Seaford’s water system also includes a fifth well, used only in true emergencies. There is no plan to utilize that well at this time, Mr. Mears said.

City officials are researching how to correct the problem. Options may include treating the water to remove radium or abandoning the well, which would require drilling a new one in a confined aquifer.

Mr. Mears anticipates resolving the problem within three months.

“It is going to be a little bit of a lengthy process because we have to get engineering involved,” he said. “The choices are a treatment process — which they are investigating cost and sizing and all that stuff — and the potential to abandon the well. Then, if we do that, we have to try to find a spot that is best to locate a new well for our system. Either option is going to take a little bit to determine what we are going to do.”

What is radium?

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, radium is a naturally occurring radioactive metal that exists as one of several isotopes. It is formed when uranium and thorium decay in the environment. In a natural environment, radium is found at low levels in soil, water, rocks, coal, plants and food.