Radium

Postponed by last week's snow, an informal public session planned by the county health department about naturally occurring radium in well water across much of Anne Arundel has been rescheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow at Arundel High School in Gambrills. Officials from county and state agencies will offer information on radium and answer questions. The session will be similar to one last year at Chesapeake High School, which attracted several hundred people. Naturally occurring radium could affect residential wells in communities north of U.S. 50, and is deemed by county health officials to pose little risk.

THEATER `Purple' on the road The Color Purple - the story of Celie, a young black woman who endures abuse from men in her life and finds strength through the women around her - won a Pulitzer Prize as a novel by Alice Walker and received 11 Academy Award nominations as a film by Steven Spielberg. Now, the critically acclaimed classic heads to the stage in musical form at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center's Hippodrome Theatre, during its first North American tour. Gospel recording artist Jeannette Bayardelle plays Celie, and former American Idol contestant LaToya London plays her sister, Nettie.

The state Department of the Environment plans to test for naturally occurring radium in wells in the Magothy and Patapsco rivers' aquifers in parts of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Cecil, Harford, Kent, Queen Anne's and Prince George's counties.The study was prompted by the discovery of elevated levels of radium in wells in the northern and western sections of Anne Arundel.Naturally occurring radium in water does not pose an immediate health problem and can be removed by water treatment. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warns of small, long-term health risks from drinking water with a radium level above EPA standards.

County Executive John R. Leopold plans to ask the General Assembly to make permanent a little-used financial aid program that helps well owners pay for water-purification systems to get rid of radium contamination. Six families have taken advantage of the pilot program since Leopold, who took office this month after five terms as a delegate, sponsored the 2003 bill creating it. The program, which was set to expire in 2009, uses state and county grants to reduce the cost of a water-purification system for eligible households by up to 25 percent.

The Anne Arundel County Health Department is encouraging about 20,000 northern and central county residents to have their private wells tested for radium, while stressing that the risk of contracting cancer by drinking contaminated water is small. The recommendations, outlined in letters to be mailed Thursday, were made after tests of about 1,000 homes found that two out of three wells had high levels of radium. The naturally occurring radioactive metal is thought to cause bone cancer in high doses over time.

The Anne Arundel County Health Department is encouraging about 20,000 northern and central county residents to have their private wells tested for radium, while stressing that the risk of contracting cancer by drinking contaminated water is small. The recommendations, outlined in letters to be mailed Thursday, were made after tests of about 1,000 homes found that two out of three wells had high levels of radium. The naturally occurring radioactive metal is thought to cause bone cancer in high doses over time.

Saying North County residents have the right to "clean, uncontaminated drinking water," Anne Arundel County Council Chairwoman Shirley Murphy announced yesterday the formation of a task force that will examine radium levels in the area's well water. In a statement, Murphy said radium does not represent a health emergency but that the county needs a long-term strategy to deal with radium contamination. She said she wants the task force to explore issues of development, safety, water treatment and the costs of water testing.

Howard County health officials have offered to test for radium in private well water, but so far no well owners have taken them up on it. Radium is a radioactive metal that forms naturally in soil, rocks and ground water, and carries a small risk of bone cancer when ingested in large quantities. High levels of the substance have shown up in private wells in Anne Arundel County. Frank Skinner, Howard County's environmental health director, said the county is offering radium tests because the area east of Interstate 95 is geologically similar to parts of Anne Arundel County.

WASHINGTON -- Thousands of military personnel, including perhaps 5,000 submariners, received radium treatments for middle ear problems in the 1940s and beyond, and should be studied for possible long-term effects of the radiation, say researchers.The radium treatments involve the largest group of veterans exposed to radiation other than those who served near atomic bomb tests, Dr. Alan Ducatman, an environmental health specialist at the West Virginia University Medical School, said yesterday.

The state is suggesting public water as a possible long-term solution for Pasadena residents who have radium in their well water - renewing the debate over whether connecting the peninsula to public water would bring unwanted development. In a letter to a member of Citizens Against Radium Poisoning, Jane T. Nishida, state secretary of the environment, wrote that the Maryland Department of the Environment is committed to working with the county to evaluate the costs and benefits of providing public water to the Pasadena peninsula.

Thousands of residents in northern Anne Arundel County sip unregulated drinking water, unaware of a cancer threat that potentially lurks in their private wells. Radium, a radioactive element naturally found in rocks and soil, may be out of sight, but state officials have spent the summer trying to make residents aware of the cancer-causing substance that lies in the ground. The state pays for up to 25 percent of the cost for a water-treatment system for wells containing high radium levels.

3 county schools damaged by storm set to reopen today For the first time since Feb. 14, all Anne Arundel County public schools were expected to open today, school officials said. The three schools that were closed yesterday because of storm damage - Severn River and Magothy River middle schools, in Arnold, and Marley Elementary School, in Glen Burnie - have been cleared to open, school spokesman Michael Walsh said. The roof collapsed Saturday on the building that houses Severn River and Magothy River middle schools.

A state bill that would help some families pay to treat their radium-tainted wells gained momentum yesterday by winning public endorsements from Anne Arundel County and state officials. Under the proposal heard by the House Environmental Matters Committee, the county and state would combine to pay for up to one-quarter of the cost of radium-treatment systems. A treatment system costs $800 to $3,000, health officials said. The legislation, which is co-sponsored by 11 Anne Arundel delegates, is intended to help families near Pasadena, where some estimate that more than 6,000 wells have unsafe levels of the radioactive metal.

Noting budget constraints, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development has determined that it can't offer loans and grants to middle-income families in northern Anne Arundel County for treating radium-tainted wells. A report, which the department sent last week to the leaders of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee and the House Appropriations Committee, lists several loan and grant programs for low-income families who must upgrade their wells. Families with incomes of more than $53,000 don't qualify for assistance.

County Council Chairwoman Shirley Murphy, faced with criticism of a report on what to do about a cancer-causing agent in Pasadena well water, said yesterday it could be updated in six months to include recommendations from former members of a task force formed to study the issue. "If they want to put more in and it's credible and accurate, then it should be added," said Murphy, as she released the report yesterday. Still, she stood by the report, saying the task force members' criticisms don't undermine the report's credibility.

County Council Chairwoman Shirley Murphy, faced with criticism of a report on what to do about a cancer-causing agent in Pasadena well water, said yesterday it could be updated in six months to include recommendations from former members of a task force formed to study the issue. "If they want to put more in and it's credible and accurate, then it should be added," said Murphy, as she released the report yesterday. Still, she stood by the report, saying the task force members' criticisms don't undermine the report's credibility.

A new task force of Pasadena residents looking at what to do about radium in the area's private wells aims to come up with recommendations by midyear. The seven-member group, the Pasadena Citizens Task Force on Radium in Well Water, will study radium levels in well water, treatment system options and other water sources to inform the community and will make a proposal to County Council Chairwoman Shirley Murphy. "Our goal would be to ultimately suggest systems that will protect the public heath and safety of citizens from radium in well water," said Lester Ettlinger, the group's chairman.

A new task force of Pasadena residents looking at what to do about radium in the area's private wells aims to come up with recommendations by midyear. The seven-member group, Pasadena Citizens Task Force on Radium in Well Water, will study radium levels in well water, treatment system options and other water sources to inform the community and will make a proposal to County Council Chairwoman Shirley Murphy. "Our goal would be to ultimately suggest systems that will protect the public heath and safety of citizens from radium in well water," said Lester Ettlinger, the group's chairman.

A report to be released today on a cancer-causing agent in Pasadena well water concludes that taking public water to the peninsula would spawn increased development, but members of a task force formed to study the issue have disavowed its findings. The 70-page report, written by environmental risk consultant Lester A. Ettlinger, also calls for wells countywide to be tested for radium and asks for a geological survey to determine the extent of radium contamination in Pasadena, according to those familiar with the report.

A report on what to do about radium found in private Pasadena well water is expected to be released this summer, but it isn't written by the community task force formed to study the issue. Instead, the report has been written by the panel's former chairman, who quit over what he called a failure by members to be objective. The group then disbanded, and Lester Ettlinger, who called the committee's deadlock "hopeless," wrote the report. The seven-member group, the Pasadena Citizens Task Force on Radium in Well Water, was split between those who wanted to connect the peninsula to public water and those who didn't.