Emily
Editor, Senior Moderator
A Forbes blogger, Jeff McMahon, monitoring EPA data is credited for bringing Philadelphia's iodine-131 levels in drinking water to the public's attention.
The contamination is not believed to be from Fukushima fallout, (at least the bulk of it), and more scrutiny revealed that levels exceeding EPA guidelines were being recorded for years prior to the April 2011 revelations, as far back as 2007. See comments here alleging censorship of a link to EPA data posted in response to an April newspaper article.
Then the article below revealed that the EPA had indeed been recording levels of I-131 exceeding their maximum drinking water guidelines for years in Philadelphia without notifying local water quality officials.
http://articles.philly.com/2011-05-09/news/29525373_1_drinking-water-water-department-water-supply
An EPA radiation monitoring official quoted in the article above seemed intransigent regarding the agencies' policy of not alerting local governments to radiation levels exceeding guidelines, but finally after even more publicity was generated about the situation by this story. (The print version has been removed by FOX):
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/is-iodine-131-killing-babies-in-philly-061611)
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EPA is now willing to communicate its findings to local officials.
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/21635
Philly officials still don't know where iodine in water coming from
June 15, 2011
By Carolyn Beeler
The contamination is not believed to be from Fukushima fallout, (at least the bulk of it), and more scrutiny revealed that levels exceeding EPA guidelines were being recorded for years prior to the April 2011 revelations, as far back as 2007. See comments here alleging censorship of a link to EPA data posted in response to an April newspaper article.
Then the article below revealed that the EPA had indeed been recording levels of I-131 exceeding their maximum drinking water guidelines for years in Philadelphia without notifying local water quality officials.
http://articles.philly.com/2011-05-09/news/29525373_1_drinking-water-water-department-water-supply
An EPA radiation monitoring official quoted in the article above seemed intransigent regarding the agencies' policy of not alerting local governments to radiation levels exceeding guidelines, but finally after even more publicity was generated about the situation by this story. (The print version has been removed by FOX):
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/is-iodine-131-killing-babies-in-philly-061611)
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EPA is now willing to communicate its findings to local officials.
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/21635
Philly officials still don't know where iodine in water coming from
June 15, 2011
By Carolyn Beeler
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