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Tuesday, November 2, 1999

Grants awarded to test water for uranium contamination
Lack of evidence of such toxicity in Nueces River Basin may be for lack of looking, environmental scientist says
By Lisa Falkenberg
Scripps Howard Austin Bureau

AUSTIN - Seafood and drinking water from the Nueces River Basin may be contaminated with uranium from mines in South Texas, said Texas A&M University professors, who have received a grant to research the matter.
   Uranium is potentially harmful because it is toxic and radioactive, conditions known to cause birth defects and cancer, said Bruce Herbert, associate professor of environmental geochemistry at A&M inCollege Station.
   Other elements that naturally occur near uranium also are dangerous, he said. Molybdenum, selenium and other trace metals can cause various health problems.
   "There's no evidence that people have been harmed by these contaminates, but it's possible that that's because no one has looked,'' Herbert said.
   Eduardo Gara¤a, city water superintendent, said the state has monitored uranium mining sites in the Three Rivers area for years. Gara¤a said that while he's not sure if the city's water supply has ever been tested specifically for uranium, he's confident that the state and federal agencies that monitored the shutdown of the mines have done an adequate job and that the city's water supply should be safe. Tests performed on city water by the state have included tests for the breakdown of gross beta emittors, which would catch a variety of radioactive constituents, Gara¤a said. But Gara¤a said he didn't know if that test would catch traces of uranium.
   "I don't think it should be a concern, though," Gara¤a said.
   "We do have to run tests, naturally, and we have found nothing in our drinking water that would make us say that it has anything in it that shouldn't be there," Gara¤a said. "But we are aware of operations up there."
   Uranium mining
   Mining took place in counties such as Karnes, Live Oak and Atascosa from 1960 to 1983, said Patrick Michaud, director of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's division of nearshore research. Michaud, along with two A&M-Corpus Christi students, will be collecting and analyzing data at rivers and estuaries for the research project.
   Large piles of sediment from which uranium was extracted still stand near the old mines, Herbert said. Harmful metals from piles, called trailings, flow into South Texas water bodies when it rains, he said.
   "The reason why we are studying this project is because . . . there is some evidence that concentrations of these elements are high enough to cause health defects in cows grazing near the mine trailings,'' Herbert said.
   These cows were affected by molybdenum, a metal that exists with uranium, he said. "This project has the potential to measure contaminated release to the Nueces River during the past decade and help us decide whether an environmental problem exists,'' Herbert said.
   Researchers' plans
   Herbert said his research team would appeal to the Legislature to enact laws to protect Texans from harm if contamination levels are high enough to be harmful to humans, domestic animals and wildlife.
   Several reports will be published from the study, Michaud said, as well as maps showing the location of mines and contaminated waters, if any are found.
   The researchers received news Friday of their $35,501, two-year grant, which was awarded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
   "I am totally shocked,'' Michaud said. "Not because I didn't think it was worthwhile, but because it's very, very hard to get.''
   Michaud said his proposal was the only one approved of the 20 submitted by A&M-Corpus Christi.
   The coordinating board approved a total of 479 projects statewide, totaling about $60 million in grants for 2000-2001. The board issues grants under the state's Advanced Research Program and the Advanced Technology Program, which includes $4.7 million for previously funded projects that have commercial potential.
   Water rights study
   Researchers at Texas A&M-Kingsville also were awarded a grant. Their $550,000 grant will be used to study water management along the Texas-Mexico border.
   Texas A&M-Kingsville will share the grant with the University of Houston, Rice University, Texas A&M International University in Laredo and the University of Texas at Brownsville.
   Researchers from the five institutions will examine several water problems in the border region from Laredo to Brownsville, including water supply, quality and use and management of floods and droughts. The study will include the Laguna Madre-Port Mansfield coastal zone.
   The border water project received the largest grant this year, said Roger Elliot, the coordinating board's assistant commissioner for finance planning and research.
   "Water down in the border region is just a terrible problem,'' he said. "The five schools are working together to address that problem.''
   Selecting grant winners
   Grant winners are chosen in a peer-reviewed process that involves 150 experts from Texas and other states, none of whom are associated with Texas universities, Elliot said.
   Water rights along the border were established hundreds of years ago, said Andrew Ernest, chairman of the environmental engineering department, who will head up the two-year study in Kingsville.
   Today, rights are governed by an outdated collection of systems. This causes inefficient water usage, he said.
   Ernest wants to come up with proposals of new, more efficient ways to divide the water.
   "The only way it would help is if the rules were changed,'' Ernest said. "For example, if we were able to publish a report and say there's a much better way of doing business.'' He hopes this tactic would convince some landowners to share or relinquish their rights in order to benefit the whole area.
   Ernest hopes the study will produce an online information system that border water managers could use as a tool in making water decisions. The computer system would contain data that would let the user know who needs water and who is in a position to share.
   "If the information is available and easily usable, then they can make much better informed decisions,'' Ernest said.



Scripps Howard Austin Bureau writer Lisa Falkenberg can be reached at (512) 478-9644.

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